


Love Conquers All, Book 2 - Sparks of Destiny

by Ultra



Series: Love Conquers All [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Coming of Age, Dark Castle, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, First Love, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Love, Love at First Sight, Meet-Cute, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Princess Emma Swan, Romance, Step-parents, True Love, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 10:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3525632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years after Baelfire returned to the Enchanted Forest, and still he is trying to find his place in the world. Meanwhile, Princess Emma is coming of age and wishing she knew more about what lay beyond the castle walls. Perhaps what they are looking for is each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was supposed to be this epic night. Her first ball, it was kind of a big deal. Not the first she had attended, but the first thrown in her name, in her honour, for the love of Princess Emma. The truth was, she loved all this stuff as a child. The frilly dresses and the tiaras, it was fun then. As she grew older, Emma started to change. She still liked to dress up sometimes, but she had learnt more about the world she lived in, the trials of life, the adventures that existed beyond the castle walls, both scary and exciting. There was no room for pouffy dresses and strings of pearls and diamonds when she was learning to ride and fight and shoot a bow. Unfortunately, tonight was a different kettle of fish altogether, tonight was exactly the occasion for dressing up and being a lady.

Emma never could wrap her head around the way her mother did it. Queen Snow could go out all day in buck-skin and fur, shooting a bow and arrow, running around like a child in the woods. By the evening, she would be clean and bright as a new pin in a long flowing gown and jewels, as regal as anybody ever had been or could be. Emma didn’t feel like she could do that, and she certainly didn’t appreciate the fact she was expected to get all dolled up for the men of the surrounding kingdoms to fawn over.

“It’s my sixteenth birthday, shouldn’t I get to choose how I spend it?” she whined as her mother helped fasten the last few buttons at the back of her dress.

“Honey, you did choose how to spend it,” Snow reminded her kindly. “We did all the things you wanted all day long, and now you need to do what’s expected. It’s the price of being royal,” she said moving to stand beside her daughter.

Their reflections in the glass were a sight to behold. Snow could easily pass for Emma’s sister rather than her mother, her beauty not having diminished even a little in all these years. They looked a little alike, but Emma knew she had a lot of her father in her too. Prince David was a handsome man, a kind and generous consort to his queen, and the best father Emma could ever ask for. He and her mother asked so little of her most of the time, but tonight she wished they didn’t need her to do this.

“I feel ridiculous,” she complained, crossing her arms over her chest and then uncrossing them again.

If she must wear a ball gown and go through this whole ordeal, she had wanted something classy. Deep red velvet that swept to the floor and showed off her curves that were already very apparent even at her young age, that would've been great. Her parents had insisted on the more conservative white number that she actually wore, as all sixteen year olds did when they came out in society. This was the first event at which Emma was considered ‘available’.

“It’s like I’m a prize cow at the market,” she huffed.

“My daughter? A prize cow?” her father smiled amusedly at those words as he came into the bedroom and joined his family by the mirror. “A prize worth the winning, I will accept, but as to the rest? Emma, please,” he shook his head, putting his hand to her hair and turning her head until she looked up at him. “You are not to be bought, sold, or bartered. Believe me, we liberated this land from the rule of evil people as we did to ensure freedom for all. Tonight we present you to the men of court, Emma, but they are not at liberty to demand anything. Should you choose a suitor amongst them, then so be it, but if you don’t? Well, that’s okay too.”

“Of course it is,” Snow smiled. “Your father and I know better than anyone what it is to be forced into a relationship that is unwanted. Should you fall in love then we will be thrilled, but it doesn’t have to be tonight. It doesn’t have to be anyone we choose, only someone that your heart chooses.”

Emma smiled at the pretty words and looked again into the glass. It was a relief to know she would not be forced into marriage. She never really expected that kind of behaviour from her parents and yet it was always a worry somewhere in the back of her mind. She had seen it happen to others she knew. Emma couldn’t imagine ever marrying anyone, but certainly she would have to be in love for it to occur. For all that she could be a tomboy sometimes, she would like to know what it was to feel that which her parents already shared - true love.

“We should go,” said the prince then, offering an arm each to his wife and daughter. “Our public awaits.”

Emma took a deep breath and smiled at her parents as she was led out of her chambers and down to the ballroom. She was ready for this now.

* * *

“So, this is where you’re hiding,” said Belle as she hovered by the door.

Rumpelstiltskin heard her, of course he did, but didn’t react. His eyes were fixed on the view from the far window, his mind completely elsewhere.

“If I had magic still...” he said so quietly Belle almost didn’t hear.

She felt his pain, she truly did, but couldn’t be sorry for the fact he was no longer the Dark One. Magic had defined him for so very long, overshadowing the love that lived deep within his heart. Without it, he could be a better man, the kind of man that deserved the son that Belle herself had assisted in bringing back to him. It was Baelfire, who’s return had brought Rumpel so much joy, that now caused him pain.

“He would not be brought back by magic, not this time,” said Belle, shaking her head as she appeared at her lover’s side and took his hand in her own. “Bae will come back under his own steam, he just... he needs a chance to be himself, to have a little freedom without the dangers he faced in other lands,” she explained. “You know being cooped up in the castle was driving him crazy. His leaving for a while doesn’t mean he loves you less, Rumpel, it just means he’s a boy who has finally become a man.”

Rumpelstiltskin felt the tug of a smile at his lips as he looked at his darling Belle. She saw the best in every person and every situation. He would say that she could not know Bae’s mind better than himself, but that would be a lie. The two of them had bonded somehow, the way a step-mother and child should, though Baelfire was no child anymore. At twenty three he was indeed a man and Rumpel could well understand him wanting to find his way in his homeland after so long away from it, so long being perpetually fourteen in Neverland, and then confined mostly to the Dark Castle after that.

“I wonder if he would have been happier left alone,” he said in a small voice, so far removed from the high-pitched giggles that The Dark One had been so renowned for. “Though he is three-and-twenty in looks, he has lived a great many lifetimes, as I have,” Rumpel sighed.

“But for as long as he looked like a boy he was treated as one and behaved as one as well,” said Belle with a knowing look. “Just as you felt you must act like a monster because the world saw one when they looked at you.”

“The world, yes, but not you,” he reminded her, putting a hand to her cheek. “I wonder what would have become of me, and of Bae, without your influence, Belle.”

She smiled at the sweet sentiment, her eyes dipping to the ground in embarrassment.

“I didn’t do so much,” she shrugged. “I only believed in the good in you, and in the love you clearly have for your son. You did all the hard work in retrieving him from Neverland, I just came along for the ride,” she reminded him, leaning into his embrace.

Kissing his lips was familiar and felt good, she hoped it brought him the same joy and comfort as it did her. The way he fought to get Bae back and now poor Rumple felt his son was slipping away again. It wasn’t true. Baelfire didn’t intend to disappear and never come back, he just wanted a little freedom for a while, such he was finding out there in the kingdom, free to do as he wanted. Of course she worried too, for the step-son she was in no way old enough to mother, but she had faith in him, as she always had in Rumpelstiltskin. Bae had taken trips out into the woods before, to travel around into places he had long forgotten or never seen. This was just one more trip of many, but had already been longer than any before, two months already and no sign of him. Still, Belle was sure nothing awful had befallen him. Bae wouldn’t allow himself to get into too much trouble, she was certain. She only hoped she was right about that.

* * *

“Are you sure you saw the beast go this way?” asked Robin as he clambered over fallen branches and brambles, chasing after his friend.

“Can’t you hear that noise? It’s got to be just passed those trees!” Baelfire declared, continuing his pursuit.

It was only as he got closer to the clearing that he realised his mistake. Tracking wild animals in the woods still wasn’t his strong suit. He coped pretty well in Neverland, collecting berries from the jungle plants and drinking water from the spring to survive. He hadn’t needed any skills like that when he got home, living in the Dark Castle with his father and Belle. He had been happy enough those first few years, reconnecting with Rumpelstiltskin, getting to know Belle, but things were different now. He had grown from boy to man, and Baelfire craved company as much as adventure. Meeting Robin Hood and his merry men on the edge of the woods hadn’t been a plan, neither had deciding to go live with them for a while, taking a break from the solitude of the castle his father refused to leave now he was effectively powerless. Belle stayed with him and Bae did the same for a long while, but he was older now, and he wanted to see a little of the land he left behind far too long ago. A week or two out ambling thro  
ugh forests and discovering towns he had never seen before was fine, but it wasn't enough. Having met Robin and Marian, there was an open invitation for him to stay with him whenever he might want or need to. Bae left the castle intending to spend just a few weeks living the outlaw life, but weeks had turned into months and he was happy to stay yet. Still, tracking the animals of the Enchanted Forest didn't always come so easy and instead of stumbling on the deer he and Robin had been trying to catch, he instead realised he had found a different beast entirely.

“Congratulations, my friend,” said Robin, clapping him on the back the moment he reached his side. “You have discovered a feast indeed... inside of a castle,” he chuckled.

Sure enough, all Baelfire’s careful tracking had achieved as to lead them to the edge of the woods, in view of Snow White’s castle. There seemed to be a party going on, if the fireworks and raucous noise was anything to go by. Every lamp in the place seemed to be lit, light pouring from each and every window.

“I guess the rich are always having a party,” he sighed.

“Not always,” Robin shook his head. “Usually some great event is being celebrated. A marriage, a birth, a coming out party perhaps,” he considered. “I suppose it might be for the princess?”

“Which one?” asked Bae curiously.

“Snow White and the Prince have but one daughter,” said Robin with a frown. “You really have been out of the world too long, Neal,” he told him. “Princess Emma must be at least sixteen by now. I should wager we have stumbled upon her introduction to society, but such a thing is not going to feed our merry band, so let us move on.”

He patted Bae on the shoulder and then set off walking back the way they had come, adjusting the quiver on his shoulder as he did so. Baelfire watched him go but didn’t follow at first. It felt more normal now to be called Neal. It was a name he had chosen years before when he decided to go out in the world and meet new people. Doubtless some might yet remember Baelfire as the son of The Dark One and neither he nor Rumpelstiltskin wanted such a thing to be a burden. To all who met him, Baelfire was simply Neal, a travelling man who had been away from his home for a long time. It accounted for him having no family or connections that he wished to discuss, no fixed abode to speak of, and a lack of general knowledge when it came to the Enchanted Forest and all its people.

Stood staring up at the castle a short walk from where he was, Baelfire frowned in deep thought. Princess Emma. He thought he had heard his father and Belle mention the name, the daughter of Snow White and Prince James, or David, there was a little confusion over the particulars of that man’s past, and Rumpelstiltskin seemed awkward in talking about it. Either way, their daughter Emma had always been spoken of as if she were a little girl. It hadn’t occurred to Bae that she was grown by now, sixteen at least. He wondered vaguely what she looked like, though he couldn’t have said why he should even care.

“Neal!” Robin called from amongst the trees. “Come on, before the men all starve to death!”

“Comin’!” Bae yelled back, though his eyes remained fixed on the castle in the distance a moment longer and a smile curved his lips. “Have a great night, princess,” he said then with a vague nod of a bow before he turned and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a magical night, attending her own coming out ball, and Emma couldn’t deny she had enjoyed it in a way. Being treated like the royalty she was didn’t exactly get old. She liked having what she needed and wanted, having people take care of the boring tasks around the castle, though there were times when she would rather be normal herself.

A great many men had tried to sweep her off her feet at her ball, dancing her around the floor, promising her gifts and a glittering future. Emma couldn’t have been less interested if she tried. She liked certain aspects of being a princess, but being married off to some prince or nobleman from another kingdom didn’t interest her at all. She liked boys, of course she did, like any other girl who was becoming a woman, but she had never met one yet that she cared to flutter her eyelashes at. Somehow Emma couldn’t imagine wanting to be that girly anyway.

Prince Matthew, son of her parents’ good friends, Frederick and Annabelle, was a nice guy but always seemed like he had a stick up his butt, Emma thought. Prince Nathanial, son of Thomas and Ella, was incredibly sweet, but way too bashful to ever interest Emma at all. The list went on, a series of young men that were either too weak-willed or too stuck up to win the heart of the fussy princess.

It didn’t matter, both of Emma’s parents assured her she was under no obligation to marry any of these men, or anyone at all if she didn’t wish it. Still, Emma knew they would be disappointed to have their daughter never find true love, and she was pretty sure she wouldn’t want to go through her whole life single either. She just wasn’t sure how she was ever going to find the right kind of man, since no prince she ever came across really appealed at all. The servants were out of bounds, that was a given, and even then Emma was only friends with a few of the young men around the palace, none of them appealed to her in a dating kind of way.

“If only it was as easy as in books,” she said to herself as she hiked down the trail into the forest, her bow and arrows slung over her shoulder.

In novels she had read, the men just seemed to have appeared in the woman’s lives, swinging in to be the hero or something equally as romantic. Emma wouldn’t mind playing the hero to some unsuspecting man actually. She knew she was capable, but at the same time, it might be nice to meet someone who could take her breath away.

The tale of her parent’s courtship had no doubt spoilt Emma’s vision of relationships. It had all been so dramatic, romantic, and complex. There was peace in all the lands these days. Regina, who had once been known as the Evil Queen, was locked safely away without her magical powers, and the imp they called Rumpelstiltskin, the supposed Dark One, had not been seen in ten years at least. The ogres had been beaten back, the giants were extinct, and so peace covered all the land.

Emma felt bad for wishing that, just for a little while, they didn’t have complete calm and understanding amongst the kingdoms. An adventure might be nice, a battle that would require the fighting skills she learnt so well from her parents, but nothing positively ever happened in the Enchanted Forest these days.

Sighing and then starting to whistle a happy working tune she had learnt from the dwarfs, Emma moved further amongst the trees and set up a target for her archery practice. Her mother was supposed to come with her, but Queen Snow had urgent business to attend to, some confusion over payment for last night’s ball apparently, and so Emma had come out alone. Technically, she was supposed to have guards escort her when she went so far beyond the castle walls, just to be on the safe side, but everybody had seemed so busy and Emma had been to this spot a hundred times before. Besides, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t battle ready should she get into trouble, she was armed and everything.

The target set, she paced out a decent distance and then pulled out her bow. Setting the arrow in place, she lined up her shot and fired. Slightly left of the bullseye was pretty good for the first arrow of the day, and the second was even closer to the centre. Emma grinned and pulled back for the third shot. A rustle in the trees stopped her from letting the arrow fly and she swung around to face the trees behind her. Someone or something was there, she was sure of it. Looking left then right, she kept her arms up, ready to let the arrow fly if she must. She never shot a real target before, an animal or a person, and she didn’t intend to start now unless she was really in danger. That remained to be seen.

“Show yourself!” she called into the forest when something seemed to move in the shadows.

Suddenly a small deer shot out of the undergrowth and tore off into the distance. Emma was so startled the arrow shot from the bow, thankfully off to one side and nowhere near the poor frightened animal that had startled her. When a yell went up, however, she wasn’t so relieved.

“Oh my God!” she gasped, realising she must have shot somebody with her wayward arrow, at least that was how it seemed.

Emma considered rushing into the trees to see what damage she might have caused but then thought better of it. This could easily be a trap, somebody pretending to be hurt so she would venture where she shouldn’t and get herself kidnapped or attacked. Another cry of pain made her decision for her. She had to go and investigate, but she would be smart about it. Putting her bow back over her shoulder, Emma went for the knife that was sheathed at her boot. She held it backwards in her hand, hiding it from sight but battle-ready in case she was being double-crossed. Slowly she crept further into the forest towards the sound of a stranger in distress.

“Hello?” she called.

A rustle in the leaves made her turn left and then she saw him, a figure on the ground trying to get away, even with an arrow lodged in his thigh. Emma felt sick.

“Hey! Stop!” she urged the man as she hurried towards him, sheathing her knife, sure now that this really was somebody in trouble and not anything like danger. “Please, let me help you,” she told the injured man.

He turned a little as she crouched down and reached to help him, and then like a blur he pounced. Emma was completely taken off guard as the man pinned her to the ground, but was ever more surprised by the fact he didn’t seem angry or crazy, he was smiling at her.

“Get off me!” she yelled in his face anyway.

“You promise not to try to shoot me again and maybe I will,” he said smartly.

Emma looked down at the man’s leg, even as she struggled against his weight holding her down. There wasn’t a scratch on him. He had been holding the shaft of her broken arrow to his thigh, making it seem as if he were hurt, and all so he could what? Have his wicked way with her? No, that didn’t seem to be it. If he wanted to hurt her or take her forcefully, he’d be doing it by now. All he really seemed to want was a promise that she meant him no harm.

“I wasn’t trying to shoot at you,” she insisted. “I don’t want any trouble, it was an accident!” she explained, looking up into the face of this mystery man.

If she were not so intent on getting herself free, she might have noticed how cute he was, in a dark and scruffy kind of a way, at least. His eyes were light brown and danced with amusement at her struggles that were getting her nowhere, until finally he gave in and released her, sitting back on his haunches as she pulled herself up and away.

“Y’know you scared away my dinner too,” he said as he got to his feet.

Emma frowned at that.

“You were going to eat the baby deer?” she asked, apparently finding the idea distasteful.

“What? Are you like a vegetarian or something?” he countered, almost certain she wouldn’t be.

After all, she was out hunting in the woods, she had to have the same kind of plan that he did, capture and kill something to take home and feed a crew of people. He certainly didn’t believe a woman like her would be out here alone in the forest. Not that she didn’t seem capable in some ways, it just didn’t seem all that likely.

“I eat meat, I just...” Emma faltered when she realised how dumb the sentence in her head really was.

Of course she ate meat, and that included venison, she just never had to see it alive so soon before it was on the table for dinner. This guy seemed quite prepared to shoot the animal, deal with it as necessary, and then cook it up to eat. She wasn’t sure why that made her squirm, but it did. Not that she was going to show weakness to this guy, especially not after the way he pinned her once today already. She had to be strong.

Getting to her feet, pulling herself up to her full height, which barely equalled the stranger’s own, she shook her head.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“No, you don’t,” he smiled, her attitude apparently having no effect on him at all. “But you could do me the favour of helping me find something around here to feed my friends with, since you scared off my only prospect of a good meal,” he considered, looking in the direction of the deer that had run far, far away already.

“How do I owe you anything?” asked Emma, almost laughing at the suggestion that she did. “You got your own back on me, pretending you were hurt. You scared the crap out of me, jumping all over me...”

“Hey, I wasn’t exactly being a gentleman, but you gotta admit, you had it coming!” the stranger told her, scoffing at her apparent high and mighty attitude. “You almost shot me!”

“By accident!” she countered, and yet she knew it was still pretty bad.

His smiling eyes proved he wasn’t actually angry with her, more amused by her terrible argument. If she had truly injured him, no amount of apology or calling it an accident would have saved him from pain or death. The fact that he was fine made it a moot point anyway, and so perhaps it wasn’t so strange that their childish petty bickering led to laughter in the end.

“Are you always so indignant?” he asked her, chuckling.

“I don’t know, are you always so impossible?” she retorted, biting her lip as she tried not to grin.

He didn’t get a chance to answer her question when they heard a sound, like a bird call but different. Immediately, Emma was on her guard, reaching for a weapon.

“Easy,” her new acquaintance urged her in a whisper. “There’s no danger. That’s my friend trying to find out if I’m okay,” he told her, cupping his hands around his mouth and making a whistling sound of his own in reply.

“Okay,” said Emma skeptically as soon as he was done. “So, what? You live in the woods?” she checked, apparently a sarcastic comment, until she realised maybe she was right.

“For now,” he shrugged. “Why, where do you live?”

Emma opened her mouth to answer but then changed her mind. She didn’t think telling a guy she just met, who lived in the woods and seemed poor as a church mouse, that she was in fact a princess that lived in a castle.

“Let’s just say my house has actual walls and a roof,” she opted for eventually.

“Uh-huh,” he nodded along with the careful answer, understanding why a young woman out alone in the woods might be wary of a stranger. “I guess you’re not going to tell me your name either?” he asked.

It wasn’t that Emma didn’t want to. Honestly, this guy was all kinds of cute, and funny too. She liked him already even though they just met, and didn’t that just seem crazy even inside her own head? Still, if she gave her name she might be asking for trouble. As much as her parents wanted her to see all people as equal and worthy, regardless of rank in life, they didn’t always return the favour. This was the first person Emma had met in a long time that didn’t automatically recognise her as royalty, and it was actually really nice.

“That depends,” she considered, smiling slightly. “Maybe if you tell me your name, I might tell you mine.”

The stranger smiled widely at that, and yet he too was wary of giving his name either. He was never sure how many would recognise the name Baelfire as the son of the former Dark One, and so with almost everyone, he used another name entirely.

“Neal,” he said easily.

“Neal?” she echoed the unfamiliar name. “As in on your knees?”

“For you, m’lady?” he countered, quirking an eyebrow as he dropped in a low bow til his knee touched the forest floor. “Of course.”

She giggled at how dumb he was being, but didn’t really feel as fun-loving as she seemed. He genuinely didn’t seem to know she was so much more than the lady he was pretending to worship, and she feared him realising her royal status if she gave her name. It shouldn’t matter, but somehow she just didn’t want him to know.

“So, does my lady have a name?” he prompted when she was silent too long.

Neal got to his feet and watched as his mystery girl’s eyes darted about, as if looking at him was a problem all of a sudden. She had to have a reason for not wanting to share her name, though she could easily make one up as he had. He hoped to have something to call her when he saw her again, and he definitely planned on seeing her again if he could. It was strange, a feeling he couldn’t explain that made him just know he was supposed to spend more time with her than some brief meeting in the forest today.

“Are you okay?” he checked, reaching out to her, but she backed up a step just as a loud voice echoed through the trees.

“Emma!”

She winced at the sound of her name, hating that she had been given away, and by her father of all people. Surely he had come looking for her when he realised she had gone out without the protection of guards and now her cover was blown. She glanced back at Neal and saw the shock on his face.

“Emma?” he checked. “You... You’re the princess?”

She hated that he knew, sure that meant her chances of ever seeing him again were lost, but it was too late now. All Emma really cared about was getting away from him before her dad caught them and got entirely the wrong idea.

“I have to go,” she said quickly, hurrying away.

“Hey, wait a second...” Neal tried to stop her but she slipped through his fingers too easily.

“Don’t let them see you,” she turned back to tell him, and then she was gone from sight.

Neal thought about following her regardless but realised that would be stupid. Instead he slunk back into the woods where he had come from, wondering if he really would ever see Emma again, and what could ever really happen between them now he knew she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.


	3. Chapter 3

“Neal! Neal!”

Robin yelled louder and physically shook his friends shoulder.

“Huh? What?” he checked, completely oblivious that anyone had been talking to him at all.

“What thoughts have you so lost to us, my friend?” asked Robin curiously. “You have been such a dreamer ever since you came back from the forest with the deer.”

Bae shook his head, knowing it was no good telling Robin and the merry men what had happened when he went out to get lunch earlier today. Meeting Emma had actually meant he lost the deer for a while, but he soon found it again, capturing and killing his friends quite the feast. Still, the whole time all he could really think about was the princess.

If only she had been anybody else, it might not be so bad. Baelfire had never really thought about meeting a woman, falling in love, settling down. Being perpetually fourteen for so long, in a land where all his focus must be on surviving and nothing more meant it wasn’t something he considered for a long time. After returning to his home world, it was all about adjusting and finding himself again as he went from boy to man. Getting to know his father again, as well as Belle, these things had been his sole focus. Never had it crossed Bae's mind when he came to live out here with the merry men, that he would find love.

“It’s nothing,” he told Robin. “I just... I’m being ridiculous,” he shook his head, making a big deal of stoking up the campfire so he didn’t have to talk about it anymore.

Robin opened his mouth to press further, but his wife quickly elbowed him in the ribs and told him no. Though the men seemed fine with making a fuss about Neal's odd mood, Marian would not allow them to make him uncomfortable. He was a good friend and a great ally to the merry men, and she liked him a great deal. From what he had told them when he first arrived to join their band, he had certainly seen his share of troubles and hardships. Whatever was bothering him now might be something that wasn’t for public consumption, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to help.

When Roland came wandering over, claiming nightmares had woken him, Robin was quick to take him back to his bed and comfort him. The merry men were soon off to their own places of rest, and before long Marian was left alone with Baelfire who had once again gone off into a dream world. With a kind smile and a careful touch she approached him, her hand landing on his shoulder.

“Robin means well,” she told Bae. “He is only concerned for your welfare.”

“I know,” he smiled right back at her. “I just... If I could explain, I would.”

Marian nodded and smiled knowingly.

“You met someone, a girl,” she said, not a question but a statement.

Baelfire looked astounded. He was aware that Marian, as with the merry men, had come to know him well, but even he was unaware of what signs he was giving that his strange behaviour was thanks to a woman.

“It’s the strangest thing,” he sighed. “I only met her today, we talked for all of ten minutes but I can’t get her out of my head,” he admitted. “She was beautiful, but it was more than that, I can’t... I can’t explain it, Marian, she was just special somehow.”

“Love at first sight,” she smiled. “I know it well. It was the same for me and Robin. All it took was that first glance and something changed. I didn’t know it was love then, but I knew it was something special.”

“It’s crazy,” Bae insisted. “To be in love after one conversation? And even if I had those feelings for her, she couldn’t see me that way. I’m not even sure she likes me, she was pretty hostile at first.”

“We women have a habit of treating those we like best the worst sometimes,” Marian smled knowingly. “You want to tell me about her?

Baelfire wasn't sure what to say. He trusted Marian, as he did Robin and all the merry men. They put their lives in each other’s hands when they fought together, went out into the woods and risked the wrath of any beast or enemy that came their way. Still, Bae kept his secrets. Nobody knew he was the Dark One's son, or that Rumpelstiltskin no longer had his powers. These were things that might be dangerous for those outside the Dark Castle walls to hear and so he kept them to himself. Baelfire had no qualms about telling Marian all about Emma, but to reveal her name and exactly who and what she was might be a problem.

“She shot an arrow at me,” he chuckled even as he said it, because it truly sounded ridiculous. “To be fair to her, she thought I was sneaking up on her. Pretty sure the arrow left the bow because she was startled more than anything. She's the reason it took me so long to catch lunch,” he admitted.

“Because she startled the deer or because she was so distracting?”

“A little of both,” he admitted with a grin that just wouldn't leave his face. “She was just... I don't know, it's like she was beautiful but not just on the outside. She shone, like there was a light inside her, when she smiled, when she laughed.”

“Oh, you really are in love,” said Marian with a sigh. “I fear your heart is lost forever, Neal.”

“Maybe,” he agreed. “All I know for sure right now is that I really want to see her again, but I probably shouldn't.”

Of course Marian couldn't understand his reluctance. Baelfire would have been mindful of getting close to any nice girl he met given who he really was, his connections to the Dark One, his true age, and so forth. It was all the more impossible knowing that Emma was a princess, and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming of all people! He couldn't really be worthy of any King or Queen's daughter, but it would be beyond insane to think he could have any kind of relationship with Emma.

“You must see her again, Neal,” said Marian, putting a hand to his elbow. “Honestly? I’m not sure you could avoid it, even if you wished to. If you two truly saw true love in each other, and it certainly sounds as if you did, fate will find a way to put you in each other’s path a second time, I'm certain of it.”

She smiled as she got up from the rock she had been perched on and headed towards the shelter where Robin and Roland waited for her to complete their family. Baelfire stayed by the fire a little longer, looking up to the stars and thinking of Emma. Maybe Marian was right. If what he was feeling was true love, as crazy as that seemed, then destiny would surely bring him and Emma back together somehow. All Baelfire could hope was that it was in good circumstances, and not with him at sword's end!

* * *

Emma was feeling very distracted. Her parents had all but grounded her when they found out she went off into the woods for archery practice without telling a soul where she was headed. No guards were nearby, no protection of any kind, and as much as Mom and Dad trusted her, it had really shaken them up to think of Emma out there alone where anything could happen.

“I know you think that now you’re sixteen you’re grown up and safe to be out alone,” said Prince David. “It’s true enough that you are an adult in so many ways, but you are also a princess, Emma, and a young woman who has not been out much in the world yet.”

“Then doesn’t it make sense for me to be out in the world?” she had countered. “If I never see what’s out there, how can I ever be ready to face it? Besides, you’ve taught me to fight, to protect myself with arrows, with a sword, what more do I need to know?”

It had been difficult to argue with her logic and she knew it, so her mother had resorted to tearful concern and worry that Emma found it hard to fight against. Her parents just loved her, so very much, and any time she wandered off or got into some scrape or other, she was reminded in no uncertain terms of what can happen to young women who stray into the woods, women who trust strangers or even those that should be family. Tales of Regina were brought to the floor, and Emma couldn’t argue her way out of anything from there.

She knew all the stories. There were few in the Enchanted Forest that hadn't either experienced the Evil Queen's wrath or been brought up on the tales. She had been Snow White's step-mother, a seemingly kind and gentle soul at first. In the end, she had proved to be murderous and cruel, manipulative and unable to be redeemed. Emma knew that as much as Regina had been a threat to everyone's safety, moreover it was the crushing disappointment of not being able to save her soul that broke Snow's heart. Still, she worried for Emma's safety with good reason. Though Regina was locked away, powerless thanks to a final act of magic by the Dark One before Rumpelstiltskin's seemingly self-imposed exile, there were other dangers. Nobody knew exactly what lurked out in the kingdom, persons unaccounted for, visitors from other lands, creatures and threats unnumbered. Snow and Charming were always wary, and Emma knew she should be the same way, and yet she didn’t feel it.

Fear did not seem to come so easily to her. Emma wasn't stupid, she had no plans to run headlong into danger on purpose, but she did not fear anything and everything that came into her path. That didn't mean she couldn't understand her parents’ concerns. All that they had lived through when they were younger, the torment and panic they had experienced during the time of their marriage and Emma's own birth. She was very lucky to be living in a world where there were far less dangers than there once had been, and she wanted to see more of that world, to have adventures the way her parents had.

Wandering aimlessly around the castle, Emma found a smile coming to her previously sullen face when she thought of the man she met in the woods yesterday. Neal was an odd name, she wondered if it were his real one or just cover for when he met strangers. She was aware that she couldn't just go ahead and trust a person she stumbled across in the forest. He could be anybody, capable of anything, and yet Emma seemed to know instinctively that she was okay with him. He seemed safe somehow, even when he was pinning her to the ground! His laughter was infectious, his eyes sparkling with a kind of fun and adventure that Emma had only ever dreamt of. Neal was the first man that Emma had ever met who made her feel this way, all these feelings she couldn’t explain. It was insane after such a brief meeting, but then Emma recalled her parents stories of how they met and fell in love in an instant, how Ella and Thomas had done the same after just one dance at a ball. Love at first sight was a pretty normal thing in the Enchanted Forest, and Emma couldn't help but think it had just happened to her.

Neal was probably out in the woods right now, maybe even looking for her, though Emma had to wonder if she had blown her chances now that he knew who she really was. Most people loved the royals, but there were others less impressed by those who ruled. Even if he was okay with her being a princess, Neal would doubtless treat Emma differently now, either bowing and scraping, or being snotty because she was of higher birth with riches he might think she didn’t deserve. There was no way to know if she never saw him again, and Emma really, really wanted to see him again.

Grounded in her parents’ terms really only meant staying in the castle grounds, Emma considered. It didn’t take her long to formulate a plan, and she practically ran back to her room to change her clothes. Out of her house clothes and into her riding gear, she was soon pelting towards the stables, breathing heavily by the time she got there and urged the stable boy to help her saddle her mare, Yellow.

Riding inside the grounds of the castle, Emma was doing nothing wrong, and if Yellow were to get startled and suddenly run off in amongst the trees out of her control, well, that wasn't her fault. Emma tried to keep the grin off her lips as she checked that nobody was around to see her, then kicked the horse with some force to get her to canter away. Straight out of the castle grounds and into the woods, she didn’t stop until she knew it would take a while for her to be found. Pulling on the reins she slowed Yellow to a trot and then walked her down by the stream. Emma looked around in all directions to see if Neal was there or anybody else for that matter. She sighed as she dismounted and tied Yellow to the nearest tree, letting the mare drink from the stream and gnaw at the nearby grass, even as Emma continued to look around. She was considering how far she dare wander when suddenly a voice spoke.

“Looking for me?” he asked and Emma spun around so fast she almost pitched over, it was only Neal’s hands reaching out to grab her waist that kept her steady.

“Hi,” she smiled at him. “I was just... Um, where'd you come from?”

“I was just walking around when I heard your horse,” he explained, hands still holding onto her. “Saw you looking around for somebody and kind of hoped it might be me.”

“Maybe it was,” she admitted, though she made a point of stepping away and out of his grasp. “Y'know my parents grounded me for the whole wandering off thing,” she told him then.

“Well, the royal family have a habit of not wanting their princesses getting lost in the woods,” he replied stiffly, as if suddenly remembering the truth about her.

Emma hated that. As much as she should be wary of some guy putting his hands on her, she really hadn't minded before. Neal was trying to stop her falling over and hurting herself, nothing more or less than that, but his hands on her body sent sparks across her skin like the electric. Emma liked it, she liked him, and though there was no reasonable explanation for that she just couldn’t help it.

“A princess is what I am, by birth,” she agreed. “But it's not who I am. I'm a person, just like you,” she told him definitely.

“Nobody is a person just like me,” muttered Neal, and though Emma frowned at the odd words she didn't get a chance to question them. “Why'd you come out here looking for me anyway? You clearly don't want me arrested because you came alone, and I'm not looking for a job at your castle, so...” he shrugged, waiting for her to explain herself.

Emma would have if she possibly could. In the end she let out a burst of laughter, born mostly of nerves, she supposed, and confessed herself.

“Honestly? I don't know why I'm here,” she admitted. “I just... I wanted to see you again.”

She was so worried he would laugh at her or tell her she was a foolish child. Emma already knew Neal was older than her, not as old as her parents, she was sure, but older. He couldn't see her as a kid, at least she hoped he didn't. The way he was looking at her right now really only told her he was flattered by her confession. Maybe she had made a big mistake. Emma’s first instinct was to bolt.

“I should go,” she said, reaching towards Yellow’s reins.

Neal’s hand on her arm stopped her.

“Don’t,” he urged her. “I’m sorry, I... I’m glad you came looking for me. I was actually trying to figure out a way to see you again,” he admitted bashfully. “I just wasn’t sure where to start, I mean, you’re a princess.”

“You keep saying that,” she smiled slightly. “But what difference does it really make? If we might like each other...”

Her voice trailed away as she realised how childish she sounded. If they liked each other. Emma knew she liked Neal, and he certainly seemed to like her. She daren’t even mention the thoughts she’d been having about true love at first sight, he might actually think she was crazy.

“Emma,” he said softly, eyes gazing down into her own. “I do like you. I know how crazy that sounds, believe me. I mean, we only met once and we’re so far from each other’s worlds, it’d be practically impossible to make anything work, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head, moving in closer without even realising it. “It’s fine being a princess, having money, having fancy clothes, but I want more out of my life. I want to have adventures and see what else the world has to offer but the castle walls!” she insisted.

Neal frowned slightly at that.

“So that’s what this is about?” he asked, hand sliding away from her arm. “You see me as a ticket out of a gilded cage?”

“No,” Emma insisted, suddenly realising that was exactly what it sounded like. “I mean, yes, I guess it was kind of exciting, the way we met, but... but that’s not it. I don’t even know what it is, but I met you and... and now you’re all I can think about. Neal, I’ve just got this feeling inside of me, and I can’t... I can’t explain it,” she tried to tell him, hand over her heart, but there were not words enough to make him see.

Still, he understood somehow. Maybe because he felt exactly the same confusion and wonder that she did. There were no words for it, not without sounding ridiculous, talking of love after two conversations with a stranger. No, no words at all, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make his feelings clear.

Emma shivered at the touch of Neal’s hand at her cheek, fingers sliding back through her hair as he pulled her closer. It wasn’t as if she had never been kissed, but none of the times she recalled were serious moments of romance with a man, just childish games. This was real, this was love, and if she hadn’t known it before, Emma knew it now as Neal’s lips touched hers and the whole world went away.


	4. Chapter 4

Something was different about Emma. It was likely that most people wouldn’t be able to tell. Her behaviour had always been a little wild, as she craved to live the kind of adventures her parents had known when they first met each other. Emma was never going to be content to wear a pretty dress and sit in the castle with her needlepoint and pianoforte. Snow was glad for the most part. She wanted her daughter to be strong, to have the ability to stand against any enemy she must face, either now or later. She had to be ready for when she one day ruled the kingdom, and Snow had no problem with Emma’s headstrong nature because it might actually help he as she grew up.

It was no surprise that she skipped out when grounded. The excuse that her horse had bolted and it wasn’t her fault really wasn’t going to fly with Snow and Charming, though they let it go because it wasn’t worth the fight. They had no proof Emma wasn’t telling the truth, and so they let her be, accepting her awful excuses. Still, she was different since her ‘accidental’ excursion into the forest, and that was what had Snow intrigued. The smile on Emma’s lips as she apologised for her behaviour had a certain dreamy quality that could only mean one thing, Snow was sure, and she planned on finding out if she was right.

“Emma?” she called, tapping on her daughter’s bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

“It’s your castle,” Emma huffed, turning over on her bed as she continued to scribble in her diary.

“Really? We’re going back to the sulking of a twelve year old now?” her mother sighed. “You’re sixteen now, Emma, this is just beneath you.”

With an eye roll and a huge sigh, the princess dumped her diary and pencil on the nightstand and turned back to face Snow. Her mother’s kind eyes and concerned expression was always enough to break Emma’s resolve. Seriously, her parents could be a lot more strict if they wanted to be. She had heard of princesses that were practically locked up in towers, never allowed to see anyone, and all in a bid to keep them safe. That was no life for anybody, and Emma knew she should be grateful she was granted as much freedom as she was. Still, it felt hard sometimes, when all she wanted was to feel normal, to not be watched twenty four hours a day.

“What’s really going on, Emma?” asked Snow as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “I know you’ve always been adventurous, and we’ve never really tried to stop you doing or being exactly what you wanted,” she shook her head. “You know all the tales of the past, about me and your father. We’ve had you learn sword-fighting, bareback riding, archery, all skills that most princesses have no use for, and would never be permitted to learn,” she explained. “You see your friends, we allow you all kinds of privileges...”

“And I’m not complaining,” Emma insisted. “Honestly, Mom, I swear, I’m not trying to make you feel bad, and I don’t want you to be mad at me, I just...”

She faltered then, words escaping her. She didn’t know how to tell her mother her reasons for running today, about Neal and everything. It wasn’t like she and Snow never talked about boys. They had the talk already about some guys and what they wanted from women. Emma was far from naive to what was involved when it came to love, and relationships that were based on nothing but physical attraction. She told Snow years ago that only true love would make her want to be with any man. As a child and a young teen she had thought herself in love before, but it was never serious, just crushes and such. This was different, this was so real that it made her heart ache.

“Emma?” prompted Snow when her daughter was quiet too long. “Whatever it is you want to tell me, I promise to not over-react,” she said, putting her hand over Emma’s own. “The not knowing is making me worry and...”

“I met a guy,” she blurted out, and watched the shock appear on her mother’s face.

It shouldn’t be such a crazy scenario. Emma was sixteen, which wasn’t much younger than Snow had been when she first met and fell in love with Charming. Still, it was a first for her, telling her mom something like this, and that meant it was a first for her hearing such a thing.

“You... you met a guy,” said Snow shakily.

If Emma just met him then it was clearly nobody they already knew. That eliminated every eligible bachelor in the known kingdoms, since every single one of those had been at the ball last week. Snow didn’t want to be a snob, but she would like to think her daughter would meet and fall for someone worthy of both her affections and her status in life. That was so unfair, and she knew it. Inside her own head she berated the thought process that led her to such a conclusion. David was not of noble birth. Though King George had adopted him, he was born of a farmer and his wife, raised as a shepherd well into adulthood. If this man Emma had met was lowly, that would be okay, even if she did end up wanting to marry him. Snow shook her head, she was getting way ahead of herself!

“I wish I could explain it, Mom,” said Emma desperately, clasping her mother’s hands in her own. “I literally just met him a couple of days ago but he’s just... he’s different. He makes me feel something I can’t even describe and when he kissed me...”

“He... He kissed you?”

Snow didn’t mean to look so shocked or in any way mad, but she must have come across that way from the way Emma reacted.

“Mom, it’s not like it sounds,” she said quickly. “Please, just hear me out, let me explain how it happened.”

Snow took a deep claiming breath and nodded her head.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s start simple and easy. Does this mystery man have a name?”

Emma’s face took on a strange expression.

“I’m sure he does,” she said awkwardly. “I’m also pretty sure that the name he gave me isn’t his real one,” she explained, at which Snow looked ever more unimpressed. “But I wasn’t exactly eager to give him my name either. He only knows what it is because he heard Dad yelling for me in the woods.”

“In the woods,” Snow echoed. “You met this man, who goes by a fake name, when you were walking alone in the woods?” 

She was speaking calmly, at least she seemed to be, but there was a slightly hysterical edge to her voice that Emma recognised too well. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand. She wasn’t exactly explaining well, that much Emma knew from the way her mom repeated it back to her. It sounded so bad, like she just threw herself at some pervert creeping around in the forest, but it wasn’t that way at all, and she had to make Snow see that. Emma wasn’t sure how she was going to manage it, but she did have to try.

“Let me start from the beginning,” she urged her mother. “Okay, so I went out into the woods to practice my archery, and there was somebody there. I was a little wary, so I had the bow raised all ready to fire. This deer, it just shot out of nowhere, it startled me. The arrow left the bow, and then this guy screamed.”

“You shot this man?” her mother checked.

“No,” Emma insisted. “But he pretended I did. I think he was trying to teach me a lesson about being more careful or something, I don’t know, but he... he made me laugh, and we got to talking. I asked his name and he said it was Neal.”

“Neal?” Snow echoed, a little confused by the odd sounding name.

“Yes, which is why I think it’s a fake but everything else about him was so... real,” said Emma thoughtfully. “It was like... there was this truth in his eyes, and I know that sounds insane, but Mom, I swear, he was so genuine in everything else.”

Snow didn’t know what to say. She wanted to be mad at her daughter for running around in the woods with a stranger. She wanted to go find this guy and threaten him with the worst kind of violence if he ever came near again. Unfortunately, everything Emma was telling her was a little too familiar. Meeting a man that made her laugh, trusting he was genuine even without proof, feeling things that could never be explained in any actual words. Yes, it was all extremely familiar.

“Oh, Emma,” she sighed, her hand at her daughter’s cheek. “You really are growing up.”

She sounded happy and sad all at the same time, and Emma wasn’t sure how to take that. She did appreciate that her mother was at least smiling about all this, not calling for the guards to go hunt down Neal and cut parts of him off for daring to touch her. That would really suck.

“So, it’s okay that I like this guy, right?” she checked. “I mean, it’s not like I can actually stop liking him. In fact, I was wondering if you could help me. Mom, what does true love feel like?”

Snow opened her mouth and then closed it again a total of three times, still with no words making it out. There was no way in the world she knew how to describe such things to her daughter or anybody else for that matter. It seemed crazy to think that Emma could be in love after just meeting a man two days ago, a man who’s name she wasn’t even certain of, but Snow recalled that in the beginning she thought Charming was Prince James and she had been in love with him from the second he chased her down for the jewels she stole out of his carriage.

“Honey, I wish I could tell you,” she shook her head. “But true love is... it’s a magic all of its own. I don’t think there are really words to describe it, but if you feel it, and it genuinely is real, I’m sure you’ll know,” she promised.

Leaning in, Snow planted a kiss on Emma’s forehead and then got to her feet. She told her baby girl, who really wasn’t such a baby anymore, to get herself ready for dinner because it wouldn’t be long now. Emma nodded and watched her mother leave before flopping back against the array of pillows on her bed.

“Is it true love?” she said to herself, thinking of Neal and the kiss they shared just this morning.

Her eyes closed as the memory washed over her, the feel of his lips against hers, his fingers in her hair. True love is a magic all its own, that’s what her mom had said. If that were true, then yes, Emma certainly had found true love, and with a man whose real name she had yet to learn.

* * *

“Baelfire!” cried Belle joyously as she spotted him by the castle gates.

She ran like a girl half her age to meet him, flinging her arms around him the moment they reached each other. It had been scarcely a month since he left the Dark Castle this last time, to live a little in the world he had been out of far too long. Still, Belle had come to miss her step-son and from the way he hugged her back, he clearly missed her too.

“I was just tending to the roses when I thought I saw someone on the path,” she said as she pulled back to look at him. “I couldn’t imagine who else would be coming to visit but you.”

“It’s good to see you, Belle.”

“And to see you,” she agreed, putting a hand to his face. “Look at you, all rough and manly,” she teased his lack of shaving. “Living in the woods clearly hasn’t done you any harm.”

“No harm, only good,” he agreed as they set off up the path to the castle doors, arm in arm. “I actually plan to go back soon, but I needed to come see you and Papa, tell you some news.”

“Good news, I’m guessing, from the smile on your face,” she grinned, echoing the expression he had been wearing since he arrived.

“Very good news, at least I think so,” Bae promised her, unable to keep it in any longer. “I think I’m in love.”


	5. Chapter 5

“No wonder you’ve been gone so long,” said Belle, after another mouthful of tea. “We were starting to wonder if you were ever coming back this time.”

It had been two months since Baelfire had decided to go off on his latest adventure beyond the castle walls. He had joined up with Robin Hood, his family and his merry men, as he had done on other occasions. They had accepted Bae into their band easily enough and so he stayed whenever he had a mind to, living off the land, having adventures, safe in the knowledge he wasn’t too far from home, and always had parents to come home too. He loved his Papa, and Belle who was too young to be a mother figure really, but managed to make Bae feel like a little boy in any case. They were quite the couple and Baelfire knew he had to come back to the Dark Castle to share the news of his falling in love. If anyone should understand it was these two.

“Actually, she’s not the reason for my being gone so long,” he admitted, turning his own tea cup around and around on the saucer. “I, er... I actually only met her three days ago.”

“The power of true love knows nothing of time, son,” said Rumpelstiltskin knowingly. “Sometimes a mere glance is all it takes,” he said, the gesture of his hands giving away that he was the same person as before when he was still the Dark One, even though he looked so much like the man he used to be these days.

“I know, I just never really thought it’d happen to me,” Baelfire shrugged. “I’m not sure it has yet, at least not for her. We’re kind of... It’s complicated.”

He looked as awkward as he felt, there was no doubt about that. Belle couldn’t think what the problem would be. Baelfire was a fine young man, kind and sweet, good looking and strong. He had only things to recommend him to any young woman as far as she knew, and she did know him well after all these years. Of course, right when she opened her mouth to say as much, she noticed Rumpel’s downcast eyes and Baelfire’s awkward expression.

There were reasons why Bae would worry when it came to romance. Things hadn’t exactly gone well for his parents and he knew of the complications in Rumpel and Belle’s relationship too. On top of that, there were other considerations, first that Baelfire had lived decades longer than any girl he might have met here in the Enchanted Forest, though he looked to be a young man in his twenties. Another problem might be his parentage. The people at large did not know if the Dark One lived or not. They certainly didn’t know that Rumpelstiltskin’s curse had been broken. He had far too many enemies for it to be widely known that he was without powers, and far too protective of his family to let anything happen to them. Still, all these things had to be considered if Baelfire truly was in love.

“Well, let’s start from the beginning,” said Belle, painting on a smile, determined not to let something that should be happy become bad so easily. “Does this potential true love of yours have a name, Bae?”

“She does,” he smiled at his step-mother. “Er, actually her name is Emma.”

His eyes shifted to his father as he spoke, expression a little less happy and a little more wary then. Rumpelstiltskin looked up slowly, eyes widening almost comically. He knew very well now why Bae had been so nervous, so secretive.

“The princess?” he checked, already sure he must be right. “But she’s just a child,” he shook his head.

“She’s sixteen,” his son confirmed. “And if you met her, Papa, you would think she was older. She’s so... sure of herself, so confident and so, so beautiful,” he explained, the way only a man overcome by true love ever could.

Rumpel only stared back at him, and Belle couldn’t think what to say. It was a strange kind of coincidence, fate perhaps. After all, it had been Emma, at the age of seven, who had called for the shadow that took Belle and Rumpel to Neverland. Without her, Bae would never have been found and brought home. She was his saviour, though he had never known it. Belle wasn’t sure if now was the time to tell him.

“The princess and the lost boy,” said Rumpel softly, staring off at a view nobody else could see.

He didn’t know this would happen, Belle was certain. When Rumpel had his powers, his ability for seeing into the future, fragments of what was to come, then perhaps he might have had some idea. That made Belle think. Perhaps a little piece of the puzzle had shown this happy ending. Baelfire and Emma meeting at last, almost ten years later, it was not beyond the realms of possibility, but for them to fall in love? Belle couldn’t think of anything more perfect.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen,” said Bae, rubbing a hand over his face. “I just... I mean, I’m older than her, and that’s got two levels, one of which I can’t even begin to explain to her.”

“You’ll have to, Bae,” his father told him. “Secrets and lies, they break hearts, not mend them.”

Belle put her hand over his on the table, showed him a comforting smile. Rumpelstiltskin had done so many terrible things in his life but now truly repented for so many. He refused to be sorry for the sacrifices he made, the deals he forged in order to get Baelfire back, but he did wish so many hadn’t had to be hurt in order to get to this point. Belle had shown him that there were better ways to handle things. That together, their love was stronger than any magic, any darkness Rumpel had ever possessed. Now they were so happy, and between them they had brought Bae home, becoming a family unit many could actually be jealous of, if they even knew they existed.

“I don’t like to bring this up,” said Baelfire, looking away. “I mean, its ancient history now, all water under the bridge, but Papa...”

“I had a hand in that family’s pain,” he filled in, knowing what his son was thinking. “Your lady love, if that is what she turns out to be, her parents suffering was in part my doing,” he said, pointing into his own chest. “She may blame you for that, unfairly, but she may.”

“I know,” Bae nodded slowly. “There’s a reason why I didn’t give her my real name, and maybe that was dumb, maybe I should just have been honest from the first second, but... but it felt like something to build up to, y’know? My Papa used to be the Dark One. That’s kind of a big thing to tell a woman you just met, that you think you could love.”

Belle wanted to say everything would be fine. She got the feeling that Rumpel would like to say so too, but they were nothing if not honest in this castle these days. There were no guarantees in relationships. If Baelfire and Emma really did have true love, then Belle had no doubt it would all work out in the end. Of course, not every meeting between a man and a woman that liked each other meant they were destined, and Emma was barely a woman yet, just sixteen. There had been a ball, so Belle had heard, one she had yearned to attend and yet she and Rumpel remained shut away. They knew what went on in the kingdom, one way or another they always found out, but they were not part of their own world in so many ways. Belle shook off her thoughts and refocused.

“I’m sure that if it is true love, it will all work out in the end,” she said thoughtfully. “I mean, look and me and your father. The day we met, nobody would have expected us to end up together. All the barriers to progress, there were times when I wondered myself,” she said, not too seriously, and yet there was a vein of truth in her jokey tone that Rumpel must have heard, the way he squeezed her hand gave him away.

“Son, as I know you have learnt over the years gone by, true love is the most powerful of all magic,” he told Bae then. “No matter the pain the truth may bring, true love will always win out in the end,” he smiled.

Baelfire smiled too because he knew that was true enough. After all, it was true love that had brought Belle into his Papa’s life, the woman that had ultimately saved him from complete self-destruction and broken the curse that held him too long. The true love bond between father and son had led Rumpelstiltskin to search across space and time for Baelfire and to bring him home.

“You know, Bae, you might not be here with us if not for Princess Emma,” said Belle then.

She looked to Rumpel and he came to the same realisation as she had within a moment. Baelfire looked between them in real confusion, sure he had never heard any story that connected him to Emma. It would be quite the surprise to find out she had some part in his own life story before they ever met.

“You remember, Bae, that Belle and I travelled to Neverland with Pan’s shadow?” said Rumpel, complete with floaty ‘flying’ hand gestures that came so naturally still. “Well, as you also know, only a child can summon the shadow...”

He said no more, just letting the suggestion of what he meant sink in. Baelfire’s eyes went ridiculously wide as he processed the information.

“Emma?” he checked, looking from his father to Belle.

“It was,” she agreed. “Rumpel swallowed a lot of pride to ask Queen Snow and Prince David that favour, but we always knew it was worth it,” she smiled, reaching out a hand to Bae’s cheek.

He smiled at the sweet sentiment, but was still feeling a little overwhelmed. To think that without Emma he would never be here. She was the reason they had come to meet as they had now. Maybe it wasn’t just true love Baelfire had found when he stumbled upon the princess in the woods, maybe it was destiny too.

* * *

It had been a very long time since Snow White went out into the woods, dressed in cloak and hood, as if she were the bandit on the run from Regina that she had once been. There was the odd occasion when she had felt the need to escape into nothingness, to play at being a commoner for a little while, but it had been years enough since the urge overtook her.

Today, Snow had a specific reason for being out here. She was looking for a particular person, or band of people at least. She knew that Robin Hood and his merry men must still be somewhere in the forest, but she was also highly aware that they moved their camp a lot to keep from being caught by their enemies. Thankfully, her tracking skills were still as sharp as ever they had been. A good mile of walking led her to the correct site. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Snow made the bird call she knew would prove she was friend rather than foe, and smiled when Robin and his men appeared from their hiding places.

"Who approaches?" asked Robin cautiously, even with the signal already heard.

"An old friend," said Snow, pulling back her hood to show her face.

Immediately, every person bowed and stooped to one knee. The queen graciously nodded her head but was quick to ask everyone to rise again.

"Please," she urged them. "I know I am a queen in rank, but we are all equal in that we are people of this land. I wish to be just Snow to you, as I always was," she smiled.

“Then, my dear friend, that is what you shall be,” said Robin as he moved towards her, and enveloped Snow in a bear hug.

Marian came over next, with Roland in tow, followed by the men Snow had met before and some that had joined the band since she departed. So much had changed in the Enchanted Forest and yet Snow fell right back into the conversations and routines of years gone by with little or no trouble.

It was almost an hour after her arrival, sat around the camp fire with mugs of good soup, that it occurred to Snow again that she actually had a purpose in coming here. The thought came to her when Robin asked after her own family, her husband and her daughter.

“Emma is sixteen now,” she said proudly. “Quite the young woman. In fact, she’s the reason I’m here. Robin, do you know a young man that goes by the name of Neal?” she asked.

Robin shared a look with his wife, unsure how to react. Neal was as good a man as they had ever known, a part of the band off-and-on for quite some time now. Now the queen was here in secret to ask after him, and in connection to the princess. A suspicious person might be wondering if they really knew their friend Neal as well as they thought.

“I wonder why you would ask, Snow?” asked Robin carefully.

“He’s in no trouble, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she told him quickly. “At least, I don’t want to cause him any. I know of no crime he’s committed. I... In fact, I was hoping you might tell me more about his character,” she said hopefully.

“He is a good man, Snow,” said Marian definitely. “A good friend to us all. I admit, we know little of his background but... but we know him to be honest and true of heart.”

“That’s... comforting,” said Snow thoughtfully. “Um, he is clearly a friend of yours, so I was hoping... Robin, could you give this Neal a message from me?”

“Of course, Snow, if you wish,” he agreed readily. “But you can assure me he is in no kind of trouble, he has caused no difficulties for you?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she smiled, though she knew there may be difficulties that came yet. “I just need to meet Neal. Would you be able to convince him to come to the castle?”

“Well, he has left us for a day or two, to visit with some relatives nearby, I believe,” explained Robin.

“Yes, he does disappear from time to time, but I’m sure he will be back soon,” confirmed Marian. “As soon as he returns...”

“As soon as he returns, I hope you’ll let him know I asked to see him,” said Snow, hoping her kind tone and smile would make Robin and Marian feel better. “I promise you, I mean him no harm, I just need to talk to him. Whenever he comes back, just let him know, please?” she urged them as she got to her feet.

“You’re leaving already?” asked Robin with a frown.

“I’m afraid I have to, but it was very good to see you again,” she said definitely, reaching a hand out to Robin and the other to Marian who grasped her fingers firmly. “All of you.”

Leaving them behind at last, Snow pulled her hood back up and moved swiftly through the trees towards home. It really had been good to catch up with old friends, a piece of her past that meant so much to her. In the process, she was looking to the future, planning to meet a man who might be a large part of her life if Emma was right about the true love she believed she felt. Snow was smiling genuinely still as she arrived back at her home, and was met by her handsome husband.

“I was beginning to grow concerned about you,” he told her, hugging her close.

“You remember how I survived the woods before we met, right?” she reminded him.

Charming laughed and kissed her temple.

“Yes, I remember. Is it any wonder our daughter has turned out as adventurous as she has with you for a mother?”

“And you for a father,” she countered. “Robin is going to give a message to Neal, you know. He’ll be visiting soon, I expect.”

Her husband nodded slowly, his smile fading just a little. He wanted to be happy for his daughter, finding supposed true love, but they knew nothing of this Neal, where he came from, who he truly was. Emma was his only daughter, and he loved her and Snow more than anyone else in the world. Neal needed to prove himself worthy of Emma before anything else happened. If he was the man his princess had chosen, David only hoped that wouldn’t be a problem for Neal. He never could stand seeing Emma, or Snow, disappointed.


	6. Chapter 6

Emma was sat out on the grass in front of the castle with a book in her hand. For all that she was usually an active sort of a girl, all for pastimes that involved riding and shooting and running around, she did have her quiet moments. She loved a good novel, all full of adventure and romance. She was happy to sit in the warmth of her room in Winter or the warm sunshine out front of the castle in Summer, just getting lost in a good book. Such she was today, spread out on a blanket with a grin on her face as the characters in her novel met beneath the apple tree and embraced after too long apart. It made her think of Neal and how she so wanted to see him again. It had been several days now since they had met in the woods and he had given Emma her first real kiss. The memory of it still made her skin tingle and her heart flutter. Emma had never thought to be so girlish until she met Neal, it was why she was so very sure that this was true love.

Her mother said it was possible, and Snow ought to know. She and Emma’s father had met and fallen in love at the first glance, or so they said. They hadn’t known it at the time, but true love blossomed from that moment and was so strong it could never be broken now. Emma thought it was strange to fall in love so fast and so easily, but she believed it, because it had happened to her.

Shaking her head free of thoughts of her own love, Emma tried to refocus on her book but found it hard. In place of the heroine she put herself and in the hero’s shoes was Neal. Every kiss and caress occurred between them, every word of love and devotion was spoken in their voices. So caught up was Emma in her pretty little fantasy, she did not realise she had an audience, until a shadow fell over her, robbing her of the sun’s warmth and brightness.

Emma looked up expecting to see one of her parents or a maid that had come searching for her. She closed the book fast, looking almost guilty for her own thoughts. That guilt was replaced in quick succession but excitement and embarrassment when she realised who had really come to find her.

“Neal!” she gasped, scrambling to her feet in rather ungraceful fashion. “What are you doing here?” she asked, first with joy and then feeling more trepidation. “You shouldn’t be here,” she shook her head, checking all around in case he had been seen.

“It’s fine, Emma,” he promised her, a hand at her arm to get her attention back solely on him. “I was invited,” he explained. “Your mother left a message with a friend of mine, asking me to come and meet with her.”

Emma’s eyes went wide at that. Her mom had not said a word to her about this, and it didn’t make any sense. A little consideration soon made her realise that perhaps Snow was trying to protect her. If she invited Neal and he didn’t show, Emma would be disappointed, heart-broken even. As it was, he had come, and she was beyond thrilled to know it. This man, without rank or fortune from what he told her, was brave enough to face a Queen and her Prince Consort all so that he could get to know Emma better, such he explained now that he was given the chance.

“I don’t know what it is the queen would want to say to a guy like me,” she shrugged. “Except maybe ‘get away from my daughter!’,” he suggested sadly.

“No,” Emma insisted. “No, she wouldn’t do that, not after I told her...”

Emma stopped speaking very abruptly when Neal looked up again and met her eyes. “After you told her what?” he checked, half-intrigued to know the truth, and half-amused by how she was blushing right now.

“I... I don’t know,” she faltered. “Er, well, I told her that I met you and that you were a nice guy and...”

This was ridiculous. Emma had never felt so tongue-tied in all of her life, but somehow Neal just had the strangest effect on her. She hated it as much as she loved it, and all at the same time.

“I might’ve told her that I think I’ve found true love,” she said all in a rush then, eyes closed tight shut so she wouldn’t embarrass herself any more than was absolutely necessary.

When Neal didn’t say anything or seem to react at all for a long time, Emma cracked one eye open to peek at him. It was a relief to know he wasn’t laughing, or worse, bolting from her at top speed. Maybe Emma had got lucky here. Maybe Neal was feeling just the same way she was. Maybe it wasn’t so crazy that she thought she found true love, and yet she couldn’t tell for sure until he spoke. Right now he was at least smiling and that had to be a positive.

“Emma,” he said softly, his hand going to her cheek, encouraging her to open both eyes and look at him properly. “You think I would be here, willing to face your parents, with all their wealth and power in this land, unless I thought this was true love?”

A sigh of relief went through her at the sound of those words, and then a shiver of anticipation as Neal moved in closer. His fingers moved into Emma’s hair and around the back of her neck, pulling her to him until suddenly his lips were on hers again and she forgot how to breathe.

“I’m glad you came here,” she admitted as they parted.

“Me too,” he promised. “Queen Snow’s not so scary, right?” he checked, and Emma honestly wasn’t sure if he was serious or just kidding.

“She can be. So can my dad, but I think they’ll be nice to you,” she told him with a grin. “Come on,” she said then, grabbing his hand and taking him into the castle.

They entered through a side door, affording Neal a view of the castle he was sure few would ever see. Long corridors that seemed to go off in all directions, paintings in gold edged frames, sparkling mirrors, chandeliers. It wasn’t so very different to parts of his father’s castle, and yet there was just so much light, so much sparkle. Belle brought a great deal of life to the Dark Castle, Neal knew that from what Rumpelstiltskin had told him, and yet it was still a little dreary in appearance compared to this place.

“A lot of people to polish it ‘til it shines,” he muttered to himself as Emma practically dragged him along with her.

Neal’s eyes were everywhere, trying to take in his surroundings, finding it easier to look back over his shoulder than forward at where they were going. He meant what he said to Emma. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t sure now this was true love. Facing her parents no matter who they were would have been daunting, but a queen and her consort was a whole other level. Somehow, Neal felt that he had been less nervous when he had the face and body of a fourteen year old and was confronting Peter Pan himself, and yet he must do this, for Emma.

“You ready?” she asked him as they reached an elaborate and overly tall pair of doors.

“As I’ll ever be,” said Neal, taking a deep breath.

Emma nodded to one of the doormen and with a bow he and his partner opened up the doors. Neal walked in right behind Emma, and turned when she did to find himself facing Queen Snow and Prince David sat comfortably on a sofa like any normal couple, talking and laughing as they enjoyed tea.

“Mom, Dad,” said Emma, making her presence known. “I’d like you to meet someone,” she declared, gesturing towards her man. “This is Neal.”

“Your majesties,” he said awkwardly, unsure what proper procedure was at such a moment.

Dipping into a strange combination of two types of bow, Neal was sure he had just made a fool of himself, and yet nobody seemed to be laughing. He straightened up, glanced at Emma only to see her roll her eyes at him.

“They’re royals, but they’re still people,” she told him.

“That much is true,” agreed David as he rose to meet their guest. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Neal. Our daughter has told us a lot about you. Well, at least as much as she knows so far.”

“But I’m sure there is much more that you would like to share yourself, Neal,” added Snow as she too got to her feet and came to shake hands with her daughter’s beau.

The queen smiled at Neal’s polite manners when he kissed her hand, and told her what an honour it was to meet her, again.

“You really shouldn’t bow every time you speak, you know,” she assured him.

“I’m not really sure what I am supposed to be doing,” he admitted, shifting from foot to foot. “I mean, if you were anybody else... anybody not in control of half the Enchanted Forest...”

“Half?” Snow frowned, looking at her husband. “Did we gain a few acres?”

“Not that I know of, dear,” he responded to her teasing with a smile. “I think our guest was making a generous estimate.”

“Please, stop teasing him now!” Emma complained, even as both her parents laughed. “You promised that when you met him you would be nice.”

“Yes, we did,” her father nodded.

Honestly, the more he and Snow talked about meeting Neal, the more they convinced each other it would all be fine. Their daughter had good taste and judgment, or as good as could be expected of a sixteen year old princess that hadn’t seen much of the world yet. Still, their joking nature with the new man in Emma’s life was really only hiding nerves. This was a big step for the queen and her consort, meeting the man that might prove to be their daughter’s true love. Doubtless Neal thought he was the most terrified person in the room, but not so.

“Would you like to sit down, Neal?” asked Snow as she and David returned to one sofa.

Neal took the end of the other and Emma sat beside him, neither wanting to be either too close together nor too far apart. This was a new situation for everyone present, and as such nerve-wracking as anything.

“So,” said David at length. “Um, Neal, that’s an unusual name. Are your parents from another land?”

“No, sir,” he confirmed. “My mother passed a long time ago. My father lives but he is... a little eccentric and not big on meeting with company,” he explained as best he could without revealing the whole truth.

This was as much as he had told Emma, and for now it would have to do for her parents as well. At some point, Baelfire knew he would have to explain about his real name and true origins but right now it would be too much all at once. He had to explain to Emma before he got as far as telling Queen Snow and Prince David. One step at a time.

“And you live with your father? When you’re not at Robin’s camp, I mean?” asked Snow, as she sipped her tea.

“Yes, and with my step mother,” he confirmed. “Thankfully, she’s not the wicked kind... Oh, I’m sorry,” he apologised fast when he realised this was most definitely the wrong crowd for such a joke.

Emma winced. She wasn’t altogether sure this was going well. So far it sounded as if Neal had no connections except for a potentially crazy father, and that he chose to camp in the woods more often than not. That probably didn’t sound good to her parents, though Emma thought it was pretty cool actually. Neal was the adventurous type, and she was too, in her heart, she just hadn’t had the opportunity to live yet.

“Look, I know you’re worried about me and Emma... well, getting to know each other,” said Neal then. “But I promise you, I would never hurt her, not on purpose. I can’t explain what happened when we met, it was the craziest thing, and I guess the only explanation is that this is true love,” he said, looking to Emma with an intense but loving expression that gave her the shakes in the best way. “And you don’t have to like me or think I’m good enough for her, because believe me, I already know that I’m not, but I wanna try to be, if you’ll let me.”

Snow looked at David and he looked back at her. There was very little argument they could make if this was true love. Even if it weren’t, Emma was headstrong enough to do as she pleased no matter how they tried to stop her. Neal seemed like a decent enough person, polite and reasonable. Robin, Marian, and their band had vouched for him, which had to count for something, and he certainly looked at Emma with an expression that could only be described as adoring. Unless Neal was an exceptionally good actor, it was hard to believe he was anything but a man truly in love, and Emma was definitely feeling the same about him.

“Very well,” said David then, getting to his feet. “In the circumstances, I don’t believe we have any choice but to allow you to court our daughter,” he admitted. “I won’t threaten you, Neal, because I don’t believe there would be any point in such a thing. True love finds a way, regardless of the road blocks placed in its way, we know that better than anyone,” he said of himself and Snow. “But please, I would urge you to remember that Emma is our only child, and the most precious thing in the world to us. I would hope to have you treat her with as much care and affection as we do, and never risk her heart if such a thing can be helped.”

Neal stood up and reached to clasp David’s hand.

“You have my word, sir,” he promised, causing Emma to grin.

Despite her concerns, this seemed to have gone very well.

* * *

Neal let out a long sigh of relief the moment he and Emma stepped out of the castle door into the sunshine again.

“That might actually have been the most intense half hour of my entire life,” he told her. “And if you knew all the other tight spots I’ve been in over the years...”

“You did great in there,” she smiled up at him, swinging their joined hands as they walked. “And now we’re officially ‘courting’,” she quoted in a silly over-the-top voice.

Neal pulled on her hand and Emma wasn’t quite ready for the movement, tripping forward into his arms and colliding with his chest.

“Doesn’t matter what they want to call it,” he told her, holding her close. “It means I get to see you as much as I want, and that is all I care about.”

“Me too,” she grinned, bringing her arms up around his neck as they kissed. “That’s never going to get old,” she smiled when they parted.

“Agreed,” he told her. “So, you wanna take a walk somewhere, away from the prying eyes of guards and parents?” he suggested.

Emma giggled.

“Yes, I do,” she agreed. “Maybe you can tell me more about these intense situations you’ve been caught in before?” she suggested.

Neal forced the smile to stay on his face, but it didn’t come easily. He was going to have to be very careful about the stories he told Emma for now, until he got up the nerve to tell her the whole truth about who he really was. He hoped if he could gain her complete trust that her understanding would follow and she would easily forgive his concealment of the truth when that day came. He hoped he had this planned right, because if not, he was risking not just Emma’s heart, but his own too.


	7. Chapter 7

“It’s been two months, Belle,” said Baelfire with a sad smile. “Emma is just... She’s perfect. I love her in a way I never thought I could love anybody, and I hate that I’ve been lying to her. Today has to be the day I tell her the truth.”

His step-mother put her hand up to block the sun from her eyes as she looked at Bae in shadow against the light. He was so torn, so mixed up, and she hated to see him suffer. There was no doubt in her mind that he was deeply in love with Emma or that the princess felt the same, though she had yet to see them together. She knew from the way Bae spoke that it was true love that existed between these two, just as it did between herself and Rumpel. Unfortunately, it was Bae’s family ties to the former Dark One that could destroy everything.

“Your father understands,” she told him. “I know he’s not all that happy about anyone knowing he is still living, especially in his vulnerable human state, but he knows you have to tell the truth, Bae,” she nodded.

Baelfire reached to take the clippers from Belle’s hand and assisted her in her gardening, pruning branches that would be too high or awkward for her to reach.

“It’d be easier if I didn’t care so much, about either of them. The only person I have left of my blood family is Papa, and Emma is... She could be my future,” he tried to explain.

“I believe she is your destiny,” Belle smiled. “All the evidence certainly suggests it. I’m sure she will understand, Bae,” she assured him, her hand on his arm. “Of all the things that Rumpel has done, there was not one I couldn’t forgive, because I know that he is sorry for the harm he’s done, and that his heart is true. Your secret isn’t so very bad, and it was in the pursuit of everyone’s happiness. You were just trying to protect your father, and Emma too, in a way. This will be a lot for her to take in.”

“And her parents too,” Bae sighed, rubbing the back of his hand across his forehead. “I know Papa is sorry for the harm he did, but can I really expect Snow and David to understand?”

“You must live in hope, son,” said Rumpelstiltskin as he appeared behind them. “Would you rather I spoke to them first? For you, Bae, I will risk everything.”

Baelfire knew that much was true. His father had already risked his life more than once to rescue him and bring him home. Baelfire may have doubted Rumpelstiltskin’s love for him years ago, but not now, not since Neverland. Still, he couldn’t allow Papa to do this for him, he must do it himself, like the man he had grown up to be.

“Emma has to hear it from me, and she has to hear it before her parents do,” he explained. “In fact, I should get cleaned up and head over there now. She’s expecting me.”

“A two month anniversary date?” said Belle with a smile.

“Something like that,” he agreed though his own happy expression seemed forced before he turned to walk back into the castle.

“I did so much more damage than even I realised,” said Rumpel sadly.

Belle moved to put her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

“The path to true love is always filled with bumps and bends,” she assured him. “If this were not a problem, there would be another. Besides, if Emma and Bae are truly in love, and I believe they are, nothing you’ve done in the past can break them apart, Rumpel.”

“I hope you are right, dearie,” he sighed. “I do hope you are right.”

* * *

“Hi!” Emma greeted Neal with the biggest grin and the tightest hug.

“Hey,” he replied, holding onto her for all he was worth, highly aware of the fact that what he had to tell her today might ruin this forever. “Happy two month anniversary,” he told her as they pulled apart enough to see each other’s faces.

“And to you,” she told him, moving in for a kiss that he happily participated in.

Neal was highly aware that they had met in an unseasonably warm September, but somehow every day he was with Emma, the sun seemed to shine brighter just because she was there. That sounded sappy and ridiculous in his head. A man who had lived in this world and others for more years than were properly accountable ought to know better, but he couldn’t help himself. He was a man in love and Emma had stolen his heart. He didn’t want it back, he just wanted to be with her forever. That meant telling her the truth, and that wasn’t going to be easy.

“Come on,” she said, pulling on his hand the moment their kiss ended. “I have a spot all picked out.”

“We’re not going inside?” he gestured towards the castle, but Emma shook her head.

“Today of all days, I kind of wanted a little privacy for us,” she told him. “Didn’t you?”

“Sure, yeah,” he agreed easily and with a smile that wasn’t so hard to find.

Truthfully, he was happy to be here, to be alone with Emma wherever she wanted to go. The whole occasion was tainted by the knowledge of what he had to tell her and how badly she might yet take it, but Baelfire, as was his true identity, had to hope that he had given his heart to the right woman. If that were true, if what they had was as real and eternal as he believed, then Emma would understand, she would forgive him for what he had done. It was a lie in its way, a concealment of the truth, certainly, but it was never to deceive her or hurt her, it was for the protection of everyone, his father most of all. It was a necessary evil, and he had to hope that Emma would understand that, if not today, then at least in time.

They walked hand in hand to the walls that held the castle grounds and slipped through the gate to the outside world. Emma led the way, sure of where she was going and what she was doing apparently. Sometimes when Neal came to visit her at the castle, they went inside and sat comfortably in one of many living rooms to talk, or she gave him a tour of some wing or other, telling him tales of her ancestors whose pictures lined the walls. He had even had a couple more meetings with Queen Snow and Prince David over the weeks of his ‘courtship’ with Emma. She asked little of his family, and Neal was grateful. He had never had to elaborate much beyond the fact he had an eccentric father and a caring step-mother, though today would change all that.

There were plenty of occasions when they hadn’t talked much at all. Emma loved to read, and she did so aloud to Neal, as they lazed under a tree on the edge of the woods or on a bench in the castle gardens. She tried to teach him to dance one day, convinced he wouldn’t know, and he surprised her by all but sweeping her off her feet. They had fun together, laughed together, indulged in long hungry kisses when they were without an audience, and never tired of each other’s company. He never showed her Robin’s camp or the Dark Castle, though she knew very well he had a home as much as she did, somewhere out there. Emma wasn’t supposed to stray too far from the castle, and that worked out well for Neal, because it meant she rarely asked to do so. She wanted adventures though, he knew she did, and she wanted to have them with him. Baelfire had experienced enough adventure already, though he would go through infinitely more if it would make Emma happy. She might change her mind entirely when she heard his truth today.

“What do you think?” she asked as they came out into a clearing that Neal knew well.

They had been here before, a spot by the river where the trees made dappled shade on the shore, and flowers bloomed everywhere, even this time of year. It was a beautiful scene, like a picture from a children’s story book, so colourful and perfect that it almost shouldn’t exist in real life. Sometimes Baelfire looked at Emma and thought just the same about her.

“You’re amazing,” he told her, not least because of what she had done here today, setting up a picnic in such a special spot just for them.

“I had help,” she rolled her eyes. “You know I’m not really any use in the kitchen...”

“That’s not what I meant,” he shook his head, pulling her close again when she tried to slip away. “You are... Emma, you’re like no other woman I ever met, and... and I know we figured out pretty fast that this was meant to be, but I just... I need you to know how much I love you. I do, I love you more than anything.”

She smiled at that, eyes sparkling with happy tears, long blonde hair blowing in the breeze as she gazed up at him.

“I love you too,” she promised. “With all my heart, I do,” she nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Y’know, the day before I met you, there was a ball. I was introduced as eligible for courting,” she rolled her eyes. “And all the sons of kings and princes and dukes came to dance with me and look me over like a meat market. Some of them were nice guys, but... but I couldn’t imagine spending a life with them,” she shook her head. “Then I met you, and... and I know this right, Neal. I know you’re the one I’m supposed to be with, forever.”

She was killing him by degrees with her sweet words and innocent looks. She talked of love and forever, and he couldn’t blame her. Moments before, he had done just the same, but at least he knew for sure who he was talking to. After two months of falling head over heels in love, Emma was still calling him by an assumed name, still having to guess at so many facts about his life that he simply couldn’t tell her. As much as it was probably going to hurt the both of them, Baelfire had to come clean and it had to be now, before things went any further.

“Let’s sit down,” he told her, and they did just that.

Close together on the blanket by the water, Emma poured them both a drink in sparkling crystal glasses and pulled good food from a picnic basket. Neal couldn’t imagine eating right now, but he accepted the glass and took a long drink. He fought to find a way to begin, wondering which of a hundred practised speeches would prove to be the one he ended up using. In this moment, he seemed to have forgotten them all.

“Sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to be anything other than a princess,” Emma sighed beside him. “Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m lucky. There are people out there that are so poor, they’d starve and die without our help and that’s why we happily give it. I’m not saying I want to be poor or have to work like some people do. It’s nice not having to,” she admitted. “But the whole normal thing, not having to worry about how people are looking at you, what they think about the way you’re behaving... I don’t know, it has to be easier.”

“Not always,” said Baelfire, looking anywhere but at her. “Even a normal life can get pretty crazy and complicated. It’s not a given that everybody will like you just because you’re all the same kind of people.”

Emma looked across at him and a frown marred her pretty face. Something wasn’t right with Neal today, and it bothered her more than she wanted to admit. He spoke to her of love and commitment and she believed him. She said she felt the same and he seemed pleased, but something was wrong, she only wished she knew what it was.

“Neal?” she prompted, her hand on his arm, but before she could ask anything else he cut in.

“That’s not my real name,” he told her sharply. “Neal, it’s not the name my parents gave me when I was born.”

“I never really thought it was,” she admitted, shaking her head. “Does it matter?”

“I don’t know, does it?” he asked her, practically throwing down the sandwich he had only just now picked up, knowing he could never stand to eat anyway.

Baelfire ran both hands over his face and back through his hair. He swallowed hard, took a deep breath and looked across at Emma with the most serious expression on his face. He didn’t want to scare her, but this was a moment that couldn’t be messed up. The truth had to come out now. He had taken the first step, he just needed to be brave and push forward, believing in the true love they so often spoke of.

“Emma, what do you know about the history of this land?” he asked her.

“What I’ve been taught,” she shrugged. “I had teachers, governesses, and my parents would tell me stories. Ogres and fairies. Wars and troubles.”

“What about magic?” he checked. “I know you have to have been told all the tales about Regina and what happened before you were born, but what else?”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head, finding this conversation very strange, and Neal’s manner stranger still. “I mean, Regina learnt what she knew from the Dark One, from Rumpelstiltskin. He had all kinds of powerful magic, but nobody’s seen him in years.”

Neal nodded along with what she said, knowing it to be perfectly true, of course. He wondered why he had come at the whole topic from this angle, but it was too late to turn back now. He opened his mouth to speak the words that came next but they stuck fast in his throat. The admission that Rumpelstiltskin was his father, that he was really Baelfire, the son of the Dark One, it just wouldn’t come.

“When Mom and Dad talk about Rumpelstiltskin, they never seem scared like the townsfolk and the servants do,” said Emma then, something Neal hadn’t been expecting at all. “Actually, Mom once told me that there was a tale told, that before he became the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin was just an ordinary man. Some people said it was losing his family back then that made him so dark. So much loss...”

Neal swallowed hard again. She was giving him the easiest in he was ever going to get, and he had to take it, he just had to.

“Emma, that story is true, at least partly,” he explained quickly, picking up her hands in his own as he met her eyes. “Rumpelstiltskin lost his wife, but his son survived. He was lost for a long time, but then he returned, they were reunited.”

She nodded her understanding of the words he spoke, but their significance were lost on Emma at first. What all this had to do with Neal not being her true love’s real name, she could not decipher but then a light began to dawn in her mind. Just as the pieces started to click into place, her eyes gazing into Neal’s own, he told her the final truth that explained it all.

“Emma, my real name is Baelfire,” said Neal softly.

She shook her head. That name was familiar. She had heard it spoken only a couple of times, but she knew when those times were and who the name belonged to. The lost son of Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One’s only offspring.

“No,” she said then, pulling her hands from Neal’s grasp. “No, you... You can’t be.”

“Emma, please,” he urged her as she scrambled to her feet. “Hear me out, please. I’m sorry I lied to you, or at least that I didn’t tell you the whole truth, but you have to understand...”

“You’re the Dark One’s son?” she double-checked, hoping against hope she had this wrong. “How is that even possible? He’s been gone so long...?”

“He’s not dead,” Neal explained as he got up and hoped to block her path should she decide to run. “Rumpelstiltskin lives, but he’s not the Dark One anymore. It’s complicated, but I want to explain it to you, if you’ll let me.”

“No!” she shook her head violently, tears filling her eyes. “This is ridiculous. You can’t be... He’s hundreds of years old! If you were his son...”

“I know,” he agreed. “I know it’s confusing and scary, but Emma, please, just remember what we have, how much I love you, how much you love me...”

“How can I?” she interrupted sharply, tears trickling down her cheeks. “How can I love you? I... I don’t even know you!” she yelled.

Baelfire reached for her, but she backed up fast and then turned and ran. He tried to give chase but his foot caught in a branch and sent him sprawling. He had been looking only at Emma and not where he was going. Emma didn’t even glance at him as she tore back towards the castle, crying all the way. Bae lay on the ground, mud on his face and pain in his heart. So much for having faith in true love, believing this could all work out. Maybe it could, but the bumpy road back to happiness looked as if it were going to be much longer and rougher than he had hoped.


	8. Chapter 8

By the time Emma got back to the castle grounds, she could barely see where she was headed. Her hands clamoured at the wall, trying to reach the gate and unfasten it, tears burning in her eyes and the pounding in her chest making it impossible. Emma practically fell into the palace gardens, catching herself a moment before she hit the lawn. Honestly, she felt like maybe collapsing on the ground would be for the best, at least then she might be able to breathe.

Neal’s confession knocked the air from her lungs in a rush. The running after that didn’t help and now sobs were fighting their way into her throat and out through her mouth. She hated this. Emma had wanted today to be perfect, or at least as close as anything in life ever was. Two months they had been seeing each other and she knew almost from the very first moment that this was true love. Neal was the one she wanted to be with, for her whole life, and when they met today and he seemed to be acting so strange, a part of her was worried he didn’t feel the same. Still, a tiny hope existed in her heart, a little flame of joy thinking maybe his nerves were because he was going to commit to her, to ask her to be his wife.

Emma had to admit she wasn’t quite ready for marriage. She was only sixteen and she wanted to live a while yet, but she wouldn’t mind a long engagement. She certainly couldn’t imagine ever feeling for another person all that she felt for Neal. So much had changed in a split second, the one where he had confessed to her that his name was really Baelfire, that he was the Dark One’s son.

One arm around her own waist and stomach, Emma tried to get her breath and not gag. She must look just about as far from a lady as she ever had in her life, and certainly nothing like a princess as she drew back against the wall and tried to get her bearings. Tears poured down her cheeks now, and she cursed herself for being so weak. The problem was, it hurt so much she just couldn’t help it. Neal had lied to her, almost everything he had told her these past two month had to be lies and it broke her heart to realise that. Equally as bad was knowing who his family was, how that would affect any future they might have wanted to build. Her parents would never accept the Dark One’s son into their family, and Emma wasn’t sure she would want them to anyway.

All this considered, as Emma managed to calm herself a little, she knew she couldn’t tell her mom and dad what just happened, at least not immediately. Glancing back over her shoulder, she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or more hurt by the fact Neal hadn’t followed her this far. Maybe it was for the best that he let her be, but Emma almost wished he had given chase for longer, even if she knew in her heart she couldn’t face him right now.

Looking around, it was clear nobody had seen her ungraceful return or unladylike display. Emma wiped her hand across her face, cleaning herself up a little before hurrying around the side of the castle. She could slip in unnoticed, or very close to, and get to her room without anyone knowing she was there. The castle was so big and nobody even expected her to be home right now.

It occurred to Emma, somewhere between the side door and the stairs that maybe her own bedroom wasn’t the best place to hide. If anyone did realise she was here, that was the first place they would look for her. Better perhaps to find another hiding place where she could be alone and think things through. Of all the rooms in the castle, Emma knew she could slip into the war room and hide there. Her parents hated that they even needed such a place in their home and it really hadn’t been used since before Emma herself was born, she knew. Nobody would ever think to look for her there.

Checking nobody was on guard or even passing through the hallway, Emma pushed the large doors to the war room open and ducked inside. She closed those doors again the second she was through them and rushed to the table. Sitting down in her mother’s seat, she pulled her knees up to her chest and huddled into a ball. That was when the rest of the tears came.

Emma was sobbing unashamedly into her own knees, the shock of what had happened today flowing out of her in waves. It hurt to know she had been lied to. It hurt to know that what had been broken might never be mended. Neal wasn’t Neal at all. She always suspected he had another name, but she never cared much as to why. He was a little touchy on the subject of family, but with a mother who had passed and a father who was, as Neal put it, eccentric and reclusive, Emma understood that, she never pushed. Now she kind of wished she had asked for more of an explanation. Not that it could ever have made all that much difference. She was in love from that first day, and she knew it. Emma wasn’t sure knowing Neal was Rumpelstiltskin’s son from the get go could ever really have stopped her from falling in love with him.

“I do love him,” she said to herself. “I’m in love with him and... and it can’t ever happen.”

Saying it aloud just made her cry harder. Of course she still loved Neal, or Baelfire as she should probably learn to call him, but that didn’t make a difference. She could love him and he could love her, but it didn’t take away his lies, and it certainly didn’t change his blood line.

To think that Rumpelstiltskin still lived, it sent a cold shudder through Emma just to think about. She had a vague memory of meeting him once, and yet convinced herself it had to have been a dream, until she asked her parents for confirmation. Her mother wouldn’t even speak of it, and her father only said enough to let Emma know the events had been real. It was such a vague picture in her head, and Emma hadn’t been scared. She remembered a woman with a pretty face and dark curls, like one of the dolls the little princess had played with as a child. Now she had to wonder if that was Baelfire’s step-mother, though the idea of it seemed strange. Rumpelstiltskin was so old, and Emma’s stomach churned again just considering the age he had to be, how old that would make any son he had made. She swallowed hard, her hand going to her forehead as she considered the math.

Rumpelstiltskin had trained Regina when Snow was just a little girl. There were stories that he trained Regina’s mother before that too, which would make him at least three generations back from Emma’s own age. If he were married and had a child before the dark magicks took him over, that would add more years. It made her head ache to think about it, wondering how Neal looked so young if he really was so old. She didn’t know if he had magic, if he would ever age, where he had been up until now. If she had stuck around and talked this out like an adult, Emma knew she would have all the answers she required, but it was too hard to think about facing Neal right now. Above everything, Emma just felt her heart breaking apart in her chest. This was all too much.

Her head dropped back onto her knees as she cried some more. Emma was usually so strong, just like her parents before her, like the grandparents she never met but had so many tales of. This was different; this was heart break the like of which she had never known. At sixteen, she was ill equipped for it. She needed advice and good counsel, but her parents didn’t seem like a reasonable option in the circumstances.

“Princess Emma?”

The little voice was sudden enough to make her startle, but so familiar that Emma almost found a watery smile as she looked up.

“Jiminy,” she sniffled as she looked and saw him land gently on the table, his voice translated and projecting to her as it always was through the speaker on his chest. “I didn’t expect anyone to find me here.”

“I was flying by the window when I heard crying,” he told her. “Should I fetch the queen for you...?”

“No,” she answered his question too sharply and immediately apologised, explaining herself. “I’m sorry, I just... I can’t talk to my parents right now,” she sniffed hard, wiping her face clean with both hands. “Oh, Jiminy, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Could I help at all?” he tried. “You know I’m an awfully good listener,” he offered.

Emma smiled at that. Jiminy wasn’t her parents chief advisor for nothing. He always listened well and gave the best advice. He had solved more than a few disputes between the queen and her prince, as well as troubles with the townsfolk or the staff. Emma usually went to her parents with her problems, but Jiminy had been a good friend in her times of struggle when she was sure neither Mom or Dad really understood her. Emma couldn’t imagine now would be any different.

“What do you know about Rumpelstiltskin?” she asked him.

If it were possible for a grasshopper to look pensive, Emma would have said Jiminy did then, and yet it wasn’t long before he came up with a response.

“The Dark One hasn’t been seen around here in so many years...” he began, but Emma shook her head.

“I know that,” she confirmed. “But what do you know about his family. The family he had before he was... bad?” she asked. “People say he had a wife, maybe children. Do you know the truth?”

“Um... Well, I really only know as much as anybody else who has lived long enough to hear the stories,” Jiminy explained. “They say Rumpelstiltskin had a wife and a son, and that losing them turned him into the Dark One.”

That was as much as anybody knew, as much as Emma had heard before, at least. Now in her head she heard Neal’s words; “Rumpelstiltskin lost his wife, but his son survived. He was lost for a long time, but then he returned, they were reunited.”

“He’s still alive,” she said more to herself than to Jiminy, before her eyes and attention refocused on him. “Rumpelstiltskin... and his son.”

“Oh, my! How do you know this?” asked Jiminy, sounding somewhat panicked. “We should inform Queen Snow...”

“No!” said Emma too loudly as she sat straight up in her chair. “No, we can’t, not yet, I can’t. Jiminy, I’ve met his son. It’s Neal,” she confessed.

It was impossible to know if the cricket was shocked or anything, but the way he hopped and jumped on the table certainly suggested it. Emma was about to ask him what they should do when suddenly he rose up into the air and turned a full circle.

“Who knows about this?” he asked Emma then.

“Neal only told me, as far as I know, and now I’ve told you. That’s all,” she confirmed.

“That’s good,” Jiminy told her. “We may still be able to figure this out, Emma. Please, try not to be too upset.”

“The man I love lied to me!” she said more loudly than was reasonable, but it was at least understandable when she was so upset. “And given who and what he is, how is anything ever going to get figured out?” she asked him desperately.

“I’m not sure yet,” said Jiminy kindly. “But I promise you, Emma, I am going to try.”

He was gone out of the window before Emma had a chance to say anymore. She wasn’t sure what Jiminy could do to fix her situation, but the fact he was willing to try gave her hope. Until he returned with any kind of news, Emma decided she was going to stay right here, until she was sure she could make it through a conversation with her parents without crying.

* * *

Belle and Rumpelstiltskin were together on the sofa, her head in his lap as they both read in comfortable silence. It was the way they spent many an afternoon together, and this one was no different, at least not for the first hour or so.

A strange buzzing soon got Rumpel’s attention first and then Belle’s swiftly after. She closed her book and sat up quickly, looking around.

“Is it a fly?” she asked her husband curiously. “Or a bee?”

“No,” he shook his head ever so slightly, eyes trained very definitely on the tiny intruder. “I do believe it’s a cricket,” he said, a strange smile coming to his lips.

Belle had not seen such a look on his face in more years than she cared to count. He wore thick skin and gold flecked eyes last he had worn such an expression, and Belle did not care to see it again now.

“Rumpel?”

“I do believe we have an unwanted guest,” he said, getting up without ever glancing at his wife.

“I come in peace, Rumpelstiltskin!” called a little voice as the cricket in the room finally settled on the nearest bookshelf, across from the former Dark One. “And with news of your son.”

“Bae?”

The fearsome look that had taken over his features disappeared in a moment at the mention of his son. Belle was glad to realise her husband was suddenly calmer, and yet fear clutched her own heart when she heard Baelfire spoken of.

“What’s happened? Who are you? I don’t understand!” she said desperately, rushing to stand between Rumpel and the cricket.

“My name is Jiminy Cricket,” he instructed himself. “I am adviser and friend to Queen Snow, Prince David, and perhaps more importantly in this moment, Princess Emma,” he explained. “She received some shocking news today, from a man we all knew as Neal. He has claimed to be your son, Rumpelstiltskin, and had stated that despite rumours to the contrary, you are very much alive.”

“As you see, cricket,” he said archly. “Although not as dark as most would remember.”

“Rumpel’s curse has been broken, and yes, Neal is Baelfire and his son,” said Belle in the brief but awkward silence that followed. “There are reasons enough for the secrets and lies, but before we get into any of that, please at least tell us that Baelfire is okay.”

“He is,” said a voice, though it was not Jiminy who had spoken.

“Bae!” Belle rushed to him when she saw him by the door. “What’s happened?” she asked. “Did you tell Emma the truth?”

“I did,” he nodded, looking as sad as she had ever seen him. “She didn’t take it well.”

“That much I can confirm” Jiminy agreed. “I came to see if what you had told her was true, if the Dark One lived and you truly were his son”

“Not the Dark One any more, bug!” said Rumpel crossly. “That should be obvious to any creature with eyes, and what’s more has already been said.”

“I think a great deal more needs to be said yet,” replied the cricket just as sharply, unafraid of Rumpelstiltskin’s power, especially now he appeared to have much less of it, if any.

“Agreed,” said Rumpel with a worrying smile before he turned to Belle and Baelfire. “I think at last the time has come for me to leave this castle fair,” he said far too cheerily in the circumstances, almost too much like the crazy imp Belle had first met once upon a time long ago. “I started this whole chain of events, and now I must be the one to explain all. Queen Snow and her Prince Charming shall hear the truth from me alone. I owe them that much. I owe you that much, Baelfire,” he told his son. “And dear princess Emma too, I imagine.”

“Are you sure, Rumpel?” asked Belle, blocking his way out of the door a moment, her hands on his chest. “Is it not a great risk...?”

“For true love?” he said, looking down into her eyes with a genuine smile. “A beautiful woman once showed me nothing is more important than that, and she continues to show me, every day,” he told her, picking up her hand in his and kissing it softly. “We have no choice, Belle.”

“I know,” she nodded and smiled sweetly, gripping onto his hand. “Then let’s go.”


	9. Chapter 9

It was decided that Jiminy would lead the party to the Royal Castle. Since Rumpelstiltskin no longer possessed his magicks, there was no way into the palace but through the front door. The guards would not allow strangers access, and it was unlikely even Baelfire would be a welcome guest after what had occurred. Doubtless Emma would have told her parents of what had happened by now. Despite her protestations, Jiminy knew she would tell them the truth before long. In any case, he was the best person to take the former Dark One, his wife and his son into the castle.

As soon as they gained access, after an array of odd looks from guards too young to know what the Dark One truly looked like and yet had clearly heard tales of, Jiminy took himself to the Queen’s private rooms and had the guard at her door announce his entrance.

“Jiminy,” Snow smiled as he flew in to greet her, putting her pen down on the desk. “This is a surprise. What can I do for you?”

“Your majesty, I have news that I fear may not be welcome, but before I speak further, have you seen Princess Emma in the last hour?”

“No,” she shook her head, smiling still. “She is out with Neal. Today marks two months since they met, you know?”

“Yes, I was aware,” said Jiminy awkwardly. “Er, I wonder if Prince David would be able to join us?”

“Jiminy, what is this about?” asked Snow, her eyes narrowing. “Something must be wrong if you want to gather my family to share some news that requires such a grave tone,” she noted.

Jiminy swallowed hard, though as he was a cricket the queen couldn’t have noticed. She saw only how he hopped nervously in place, his wings unsure whether to flap or be still. He did have news to share of a serious nature. How bad it proved to be was a matter of opinion in the circumstances.

“I wonder if you might come with me, Snow,” he said, using her given name as he was prone to do when they were alone and speaking as friends. “There are guests waiting downstairs, and they can explain everything much better than I.”

Trusting in her friend, Snow nodded her ascent and rose to follow Jiminy as he flew ahead of her. They moved down flights of stairs and then towards the doors of one of the main sitting rooms. It was at this moment David walked into the very foyer in which they stood.

“Snow? And Jiminy,” he smiled at the sight of their most trusted advisor. “Is something wrong?” he checked then, the moment his wife turned to look his way, her expression pensive.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “We have guests that we need to meet, though that’s all I know so far.”

“Please,” Jiminy cut in before anything more could be said or asked of him. “If you would come into the sitting room, all will be revealed.”

Anybody else and David may not have been so willing to follow without questioning further. Jiminy was a trusted advisor and an old friend. If he said there were guests to be met that would explain all, then he would believe that. Grasping Snow’s hand, the Prince pushed his sword further around the side of his body. He would usually take it off when he got into the castle but for as much as he trusted both his wife and their friend, he was always wary of uninvited guests. One had to be in their position.

The doors were duly opened, the royal couple walking in with Jiminy fluttering ahead. First, Snow and her Charming saw Neal sat on the sofa with a beautiful woman beside him, one they had both seen before. Her presence told them all too easily who the figure by the window had to be, even though his back was facing them yet.

“No!” Snow gasped in shock.

“It can’t be,” her husband shook his head.

“And yet,” replied Rumpelstiltskin slowly turning around, “it very much can, dearie,” he stated, sounding every bit as much the Dark One as ever, though the sight of his face proved to the royal couple that he was not as he once was.

“Your majesties,” said the woman, rising fast only to bow deeply in the presence of the Queen and Prince. “Please, forgive our intrusion. I don’t know if you remember me...”

“I do,” Snow nodded, reaching out a hand to encourage her up again. “You are Rumpelstiltskin’s companion.”

“Well, I am his wife now,” she confirmed with a smile. “My name is Belle. We have come here to give you an explanation, which I fear is somewhat overdue.”

“Indeed,” Rumpelstiltskin agreed as he walked over to them with a slight limp that made the Prince stare. “As you see, your majesties, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

David’s hand went instinctively towards his sword, despite the fact Rumpelstiltskin seemed weakened now, and not so much like the Dark One as he once had. Snow saw the movement and shook her head. This didn’t feel like a trap, and yet as her mind processed the scene, a terrible shudder ran through her, accompanying a realisation she would rather not have had.

“No,” she shook her head slightly, looking between her three uninvited guests. “This is... You are the Dark One’s son?” she asked Neal outright.

“Not quite, dearie,” Rumpel corrected her then. “My son was born fourteen years before my curse overtook me,” he explained easily.

Snow and David shared a look, the information they had both received causing many more questions to present themselves in their minds. Belle patted Neal’s hand and then moved to stand by her husband, looping her arm through his own. She looked to the Queen and Prince as she spoke then.

“We understand the shock you’re feeling, but please, if you’ll let us explain,” she urged them. “I can’t see a way forward until you have all the information, and then we will all be in a better position to help Emma.”

“Emma?" Snow gasped. “Oh my... Does she know?” she asked then.

“She does,” Neal nodded as he rose to join them all. “I knew I had to tell her the whole truth before it was too late. She got upset and ran from me, back here, thankfully, so we don’t have to worry about that, but... but I hurt her, I know that. I hate that I had to, but we couldn’t... we couldn’t be together if she didn’t know the truth about me.”

Snow knew he was right, David did too, but it didn’t stop the rushing around of thoughts in their heads, or the concern they felt for their daughter.

“She’ll be heartbroken and so confused,” said Snow sadly. “I can’t imagine why she didn’t come to me when she found out.”

“I can,” her husband sighed. “Snow, she has heard nothing but tales of darkness about Rumpelstiltskin. To hear that her true love was born from that same man... It was too much for her to take in, and doubtless felt like far too much to bring to us until she understood her own feelings on the matter.”

“I believe that to be true,” said Jiminy suddenly making his presence known again. “I also believe that Miss Belle is correct in her assessment of the situation. Your majesties, if you would allow Rumpelstiltskin and his family to explain all that has come before, I believe you will then be able to help Emma better cope with what she has learned today.”

There was no denying he was right, as he so often was. Snow nodded her head.

“Alright,” she acquiesced. “Let’s all sit down and hear what Rumpelstiltskin has to say,” she said with a look.

He bowed a little, the smile creeping onto his lips reminding the queen too much of his Dark One persona. Now he looked human, and though his clothes were still a little eccentric, reminiscent of years gone by, Snow had to admit he wasn’t half so frightening as he had once appeared. The fact he seemed to have no power and had been hiding all these years, only to appear now for the sake of his son, that spoke to Snow more than anything else. Perhaps the man behind the monster’s mask was just a father and a husband, much as her Charming was. It appeared they were about to find out.

* * *

Emma had finally stopped crying. It took a good long while after Jiminy had left her for the tears to cease, but once they were over she had a chance to think more clearly. Neal was Baelfire. The name itself wasn’t a problem. She always had suspected that he gave her fake identity for some reason. Emma never once imagined the truth of the matter, that her true love was the son of the darkest power ever known in the Enchanted Forest.

Nobody should be judged by the actions of another. This Emma knew to be true. Her parents were good people, but that did not automatically make her a saint. She tried her best to be all that she should be, but that was her own doing as much as her parents influence. Baelfire wasn’t automatically evil because Rumpelstiltskin had been cursed with darkness. He certainly never seemed anything but kind, sweet, funny, and so many other good things to Emma.

Of course, believing he was a good person with a true heart didn’t make Baelfire the ideal match for Emma. Not only was there her parents view of the situation to consider, but Emma still couldn’t wrap her head around the age difference that had to exist between herself and her true love. If Baelfire was borne of Rumpelstiltskin before he was the Dark One, he ought to be hundreds of years old. Though Neal appeared to be older than Emma, and had confessed as much, he never specified how much older he really was. She had assumed five years, perhaps a little more, but that was all. The shock of realising the truth had turned her stomach, but now she thought on it logically, Emma wondered if it could really matter.

Whatever Baelfire was or had been, Emma didn’t think it could ever really change her love for him. He had her heart, that was the simple truth, and no amount of wondering on the matter changed the fact at all. He had to love her. If his plan was only to use her for any reason, he never would have told her the truth, the whole, unvarnished, dangerous truth.

“I still love him,” she said to herself. “And if he loves me...”

Her voice trailed away because she simply didn’t know where to go from there. They could have true love, her and Baelfire, but Emma wasn’t sure if it was enough, even now. For her parents, true love had meant everything, it still did. It meant they could overcome any and all obstacles in their path. Emma would love to think the same would be true for her and the man she had always known as Neal until today. She hoped it were true, but she couldn’t know for sure until she spoke to her parents and to Baelfire himself.

Getting up off her chair, Emma stretched her muscles out. After a couple of hours being crammed into her mother’s seat in the war room, it was time to face the world again. Hiding away never did anybody any good. Now Emma must go ahead and find the people she needed to talk to in order to figure out this situation and her life which depended greatly on what came next. Nothing was ever going to be achieved by sitting here crying.

Emma wiped her hands across her cheeks and then pushed her hair back over her shoulders. Taking a deep breath, she headed for the doors and let herself out of the room. She wasn’t sure where her mother or her father would be, they might even have gone out somewhere, but that wouldn’t deter the princess from looking until she found them. She headed downstairs, planning to ask the guards in the foyer whether they had seen her parents, if they were still at home or not. Emma was descending the last flight when she stopped with a jump.

“Neal?” she gasped at the sight of him. “Um, no...” she shook her head the very next moment. “Baelfire,” she forced out, feeling strange just using the name.

“Emma,” he smiled. “I, er... Your parents said I could come to find you.”

“My parents? You... you talked to them?”

“Actually, my father and Belle talked to your parents. I was there but... well, between my father and yours, it’s a little hard to get a word in edgeways,” he smiled.

Emma nodded dumbly. She was amazed to hear that Rumpelstiltskin was in the castle, and having a friendly talk with her parents, no less. It was all a little too much to take in right now, as everything was today.

“I’m so sorry about before,” said Neal then. “I mean, I had to tell you the truth, I had to...”

“I know, and I didn’t exactly react well,” Emma admitted. “I mean, could I have acted more like a kid?” she said, looking away until suddenly his hand covered hers on the bannister rail.

“Emma,” he said softly. “You reacted like anybody would’ve. Trust me, I know the news was pretty shocking.”

“Pretty shocking, yeah,” she muttered a reply before speaking more clearly. “I mean, first Rumpelstiltskin is still alive, and then he’s your father. I can’t even figure out how that works, how you’re this age still...”

“Yeah, that’s a complicated story,” he admitted.

“Then tell it to me,” countered Emma, surprising them both.

Neal, or Baelfire as she now ought to know him, shook his head as he answered her.

“I wanted to. I still do, but you weren’t exactly ready to hear it earlier, and I get it, I do, but Emma, if you’d just let me tell you everything. After that, if you never want to see me again, then I’ll go, but I hope that maybe you’ll understand and... and still love me,” he said, looking away, knowing it was almost too much to ask.

Emma smiled at how shy he suddenly looked, how out of his depth. That was comforting, because she felt exactly the same way right now.

“I’m pretty sure I don’t know how to stop loving you, no matter what you tell me,” she admitted - Baelfire smiled - “But I do need to hear everything. I’m guessing my parents have gotten the whole story from your father?”

“They have,” he confirmed. “They’ve been... surprisingly understanding.”

“They’re good at that,” said Emma with a light laugh because it was so ridiculously true.

Neal shifted awkwardly.

“So, where do you want to go? I’m guessing you didn’t plan on us having this talk on the stairs of your castle...”

“C’mon,” Emma urged him, offering him her hand and leading him up to her room.

It felt strange bringing him into her own space like this, and yet totally normal at the same time. Emma didn’t understand that, but she figured it was the least of her concerns right now. She and Neal, or Baelfire as she must learn to call him, sat down on the couch in the corner of her room, and she waited for him to begin to explain himself. Over the hours that followed, he did tell her everything from the beginning, about his parents, his father letting him go, Neverland, his return, and his life now. Emma listened to the whole story with rapt attention, saying very little, asking no questions because Baelfire seemed to be answering them without her ever needing to. He really did want her to know everything, and from his lips rather than second hand from elsewhere. Emma found some details sad and others shocking, but she took in every word and continued to listen, even when a gasp escaped her mouth or tears leaked from her eyes. The story ended at last with the moment she and Baelfire first met in the woods two months ago.

“I gave you the fake name because... well, it was what I used with everybody outside of my home. Only my father and Belle know who I really am, at least until today,” he explained. “Now you and your family know too, and er, the cricket guy that works for your parents.”

Emma nodded slowly. She had taken in a whole lot of information today and she wasn’t really sure where to start in responding to it.

“So?” said Baelfire when she was quiet too long. “Now you now everything. What do you think?”

A few more moments serious consideration were needed before Emma finally replied.

“I think that you’ve been through an awful lot in your life,” she said at last. “And that somehow that only makes me love you more,” she smiled as she met his eyes. “It had to be hard for you, carrying all of that around with you, never sharing it with anyone.”

“You have no idea,” he shook his head, reaching out a cautious hand to her cheek. “Especially when I met you, Emma. I wanted to tell you everything so many times, but... but I never thought you’d look at me the same way after you knew the truth.”

She smiled and cried at the same time, leaning into his touch.

“Well, you were wrong,” she told him. “All I’m worried about right now is remembering to call you by your real name. That one might take some time,” she told him with a giggle that she couldn’t help. “But I do love you, Baelfire,” she said very purposefully.

His eyes closed at the sound of those words, those that spoke of love for him, and using the name his Emma had not known until today. It was a perfect moment, completed when he leant in closer and pressed his lips to hers. Emma was happy to let him kiss her, and to shift her body closer to return the embrace.

It was a lot to take in, but Emma had known before Baelfire ever told his tale that she could not stop loving him now, even if she wanted to. If her parents could accept him, then there was no reason left for Emma herself to try to resist. She loved Baelfire as much now as when she thought he was Neal. Nothing could ever change that. This was true love, and it was forever.


	10. Chapter 10

For the second time in six months, Emma stood before the full length mirror in her bedroom, ensuring she looked ready to face a ball held in her honour. Of course, she was not the only person named in the invitation this time. All those asked to attend the ball tonight were to be introduced to the princess’ suitor and his family. Snow and Charming had been particular about not naming the members of said family, which amused Emma to no end. Most people had no idea that any man was courting the royal heir, in fact most were fairly certain nobody was. After all, Emma had shown no particular regard for any of the young men who had attended her coming out ball six months ago. None of them knew about Baelfire.

It had taken a while for her to get used to his new name. Honestly, she still slipped sometimes and called him Neal, but he didn’t seem to mind. Just thinking about him at all made Emma smile.

At sixteen, she never thought to find true love so fast, never considered she would want to be tied to one man for the whole of her life when she was still so young. Since meeting Baelfire, she couldn’t imagine wanting anything else. That didn’t mean Emma wasn’t still dreaming of adventure in her life, but she planned to go out into the world with Bae at her side now. They were going to live the most amazing life together, she was certain of that, but for tonight, Emma was on her best behaviour. No buck skin and furs tonight, nor a sword or arrows. Instead Emma was wearing the very dress she had wished for on the night of her coming out ball but had not been permitted.

She was coerced into a white gown that night, something all young ladies had to be seen in on such an occasion. Now she was a woman being courted by a man, and about to be presented to the kingdom as such. Tonight she picked her own dress, a flowing gown of deep red that made her feel more like a princess than she ever had before, in spite of the fact she had never been anything else her whole life.

“Emma?” called a voice, accompanied by a tapping on the door.

“Come in,” she replied, turning to smile at her father as he entered her room. “I think I’m ready,” she said as she faced him.

Prince David stood back and gazed at his daughter with a look of wonder. It was strange how much she seemed to have grown up in these last six months. The night of her coming out ball, she was still so much a little girl to her father. Now Emma was a woman in love, who along with her suitor had overcome so much. There was no doubt in David’s mind at all that they made a good match, in spite of the history between the families. Still, there would be some very shocked expressions when the guests of honour were announced at the ball tonight.

“Emma, you look beautiful, sweetheart,” he promised her as he crossed the room and took her hand in his own. “Honestly, I... Sometimes I wonder were the last sixteen and a half years have gone.”

“I had to grow up sometime, Daddy,” she smiled. “And I think I turned out okay.”

“More than okay,” he assured her, pulling her into a careful hug, mindful of crushing her dress or messing up her hair. “You know that tiara looks as good on you as it did on your mother.”

“Thanks,” said Emma, her fingers going to her hair where the tiara sat proudly. “Mom said it was her mother’s before that. I know I never knew her but... It’s weird, I feel like she’d be proud of me too.”

“That’s not weird. It’s wonderful,” her father told her, trying not to let his smile slip at all.

This wasn’t easy for him or for Snow. Emma’s growing up was tough enough to deal with, their little girl getting to an age where she just didn’t need them as much as before. Now she had another man in her life, one she would sometimes turn to in place of David. He understood that she was in love, of course he did, and Baelfire was a fine young man. His parentage would always be an issue though, David knew. Rumpelstiltskin had done a lot of terrible things over the years, and whilst it would be wrong to punish the son for the father’s crimes, it was difficult to treat the former Dark One as the new man he had become.

Rumpelstiltskin was as good as his word when he told Snow and Charming that he had changed. He had no dark forces running through his veins anymore, no real power of any kind. There was an admission that he could still perform some rudimentary spells if he put his mind to it, but for the most part, he dare not dabble in magicks any more for fear of the consequences. Baelfire had no time for such things, which was a huge comfort to Emma’s parents, and Belle didn’t exactly seem to be a fan either. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Rumpelstiltskin had ever been that cruel little imp of time gone by. He was so altered, and David couldn’t believe it was only the breaking of his dark curse that changed him. There was love in Rumpelstiltskin’s heart now, both for his son and for his wife. That was what had really changed him. True love had a habit of changing everything.

“Dad?” said Emma warily when he was quite too long. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, of course,” he promised her. “I was just thinking, about tonight,” he half-lied. “You know your mother has been frantic for weeks over the catering and the guest list. I’m pretty sure it’s all what Jiminy calls transference. I’m sure her real fear is how the public will react to Baelfire’s family.”

“I know how she feels,” Emma sighed. “But I love him so much. Even if nobody can accept Rumpelstiltskin and Belle back into their lives, I have to. I can’t not be with Bae, Dad. I wouldn’t know how.”

“I know that, sweetheart,” he promised her, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Emma, nobody is asking you to give up your true love, and I certainly never would. Now, are you ready to face your public?”

“Ready,” she agreed with a smile as she took her father’s arm and they headed out.

Carefully they moved down the stairs, stopping at the top of the last flight. Emma gazed down and saw Baelfire there at the bottom waiting for her. His eyes lit up as he looked up at her, overwhelmed by the sight. Emma had never seen him look so formal either, but she liked it, a lot.

“Wow,” he said with a grin as she reached his side and David left them alone a moment. “You look amazing. I didn’t think you could get anymore beautiful.”

“Stop it,” she blushed terribly, swatting him across the shoulder for embarrassing her. “But you do look pretty great too,” she admitted. “You clean up nice.”

“I tried,” he shrugged like it was nothing.

The truth was, Baelfire really had made an effort tonight. He couldn’t remember a time when he was ever required to dress up quite like this. He was used to animal skins, even rags. At the very least, he wore comfortable, practical clothing. There were no balls and parties in Baelfire’s past, so this really was a first for him. Belle knew more about such fanciful occasions, having been raised as a lady. She helped with the smart clothes, fixing Bae’s hair, ensuring he knew his proper manners when it came to bowing and handshakes. Hell, she even worked on his dancing skills with him in preparation for this ball, and Bae was grateful for it, even if he was pretty sure he was going to wind up looking stupid either way.

“Where’s your father and Belle?” asked Emma then.

Baelfire gestured towards the living room doors a few feet away.

“Getting their nerves together,” he explained. “Your mom is trying to put them at ease, but I don’t think it’s coming so easy, especially not to Papa. He’s been out of society a long time, and you and I both know what people thought of him last time he was in it.”

“Well, he’s different now,” Emma reasoned. “In all kinds of ways. I’m sure it’ll be fine, and even if people judge him or Belle or even you, I’m not,” she assured him. “I love you, Bae, and that’s not going to change, no matter what anybody else thinks,” she promised, her hands clasped behind his neck as she held him close. “You do believe me, don’t you?”

“I do,” he nodded, a smile coming to his lips. “Emma, of all the things in my life that I believe in, you and this love we have are right there at the top of the list.”

She smiled at that too, and leaned in closer to meet him in a sweet kiss. They barely made contact when the doors to the living room swung open, and Queen Snow stepped out with Rumpelstiltskin and Belle right behind her. Emma and Bae flew apart like they’d been scalded by each other. The adults looked amused but made no comments.

“Is everybody ready?” asked Snow then.

“I think so,” replied Belle, the only one willing to speak in that moment apparently.

“I love your dress, Belle,” said Emma with a wide smile. “The colour suits you perfectly.”

“Thank you, Emma” she replied politely. “I had something very similar years ago when I first met Rumpelstiltskin. It seemed fitting somehow to return to society as I left it.”

“And looking just as beautiful now as you did then, dearie,” her husband assured her, patting her hand that gripped his arm as she thanked him for the compliment.

“Well, everybody certainly looks the part,” said Snow with a smile. “I think it’s time we show ourselves to the world.”

“Lead the way, your majesty,” Baelfire urged her, and so she did.

Prince David was waiting in the entrance to the ball room and took Snow’s hand as soon as she appeared. Together they went in and stopped at the top of the wide staircase that led down onto the dance floor. All the guests turned to see as a herald called for silence to hear their rulers speak.

“Our dear guests, beloved friends, loyal subjects,” Snow began. “Thank you all for being here tonight, to meet some very special people that my husband and I hope to welcome into our family circle.”

“As some of you know,” David continued, “our daughter, Princess Emma, has lately come of age and tonight we present to you, her suitor. Ladies and gentleman, Princess Emma and her escort, Baelfire.”

“And with them, Bae’s father and step-mother,” Snow added, not missing a beat. “Rumpelstiltskin and Lady Belle.”

A series of gasps and general sounds of shock went through the ballroom as Baelfire and Emma emerged from behind the royal couple, followed by Rumpel and Belle. The two couples descended the stairs behind each other with Snow and David bringing up the rear.

“Okay, that’s a lot of staring people,” Bae whispered out of the side of his mouth.

“They’re just jealous that I got you,” she told him sweetly, and though he didn’t know if she was joking or not, he laughed anyway, more out of nerves than anything else.

“Just breathe, Rumpel,” said Belle behind them, sure her husband was about to pass out. “Everything is going to be alright.”

“With you on my arm, dearie? I believe nothing else,” he assured her softly, trying to concentrate on walking without tripping, even as his ankle screamed at the pressure being applied to it.

When all three couples had successfully made their entrance and reached the ball room floor, they waited for whatever reaction came next. Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, applause started up that slowly spread around the whole room. It came as somewhat of a surprise to Emma, Bae, Rumpel, and Belle, but not to the royal couple. Snow smiled because she knew who had encouraged the applause. She had quite deliberately invited Robin and Marian to her ball tonight, and unashamedly used them to sway opinion of her honoured guests. They knew they were here as friends of the queen as much as much needed support, so they did not mind at all.

“They look wonderful together,” said Marian to her husband.

“Emma and Neal or the former Dark One and his companion?” he checked.

“All of them, including Snow and David too,” she smiled widely. “They look like a family already somehow.”

Robin was a little surprised at her words, but when he looked again, he saw things just as she did.

“Aye,” he nodded. “I believe that they do.”

The crowd soon parted then as the queen was led by her husband to the centre of the floor. The music began as they bowed to each other, and so the dancing was under way. Some guests simply applauded again for the Queen and her Prince, whilst others bravely stepped forward to join in the dance.

Belle looked to Rumpel with hope in her eyes, though she knew it was unfair. He could not dance since his curse was broken, though he had done so beautifully before. The pain of his injured ankle was sometimes so bad he even struggled to walk. She knew he could heal it with the magicks he yet possessed, but Rumpel always refused to do so, saying he needed that pain, that he deserved it. It served to remind him of the man he once was, the part of himself he never wanted to allow to rear its ugly head again. Belle understood, but she disliked it greatly, especially in selfish moments like this when she wanted so very much to dance.

“I suppose you wish to be spun about the floor, dearest Belle?” he asked her, though his eyes remained on the rest of the room, never once glancing at his wife.

“The only person I would wish to dance with would be you, Rumpel,” she told him definitely. “And since that’s impossible...”

“Nothing is impossible, dearie. Not if one believes” he said then, with a smile she knew well as he took her hand in his own and took two steps forward.

“Rumpel...” she said with a look, sure this would be too much for him.

“Hush, Belle,” he shook his head, pulling her into his arms, eyes locking onto hers. “I shall feel no pain for as long as you are here for me to lean on,” he promised her.

At such beautiful words, Belle spoke no more, just held on tight to her true love as they moved slowly around the floor to the music. Emma watched them and her parents too, along with all the other couples engaged in dancing together. So far Bae had not asked her to dance, but then she wasn’t absolutely sure he knew how. She tried to teach him once and he did pretty well, but in front of other people was a whole other deal. Still, Emma wanted to dance at a ball held in their honour, and she made that very plain when it became obvious Baelfire wasn’t going to ask her.

“So, this is pretty much our ball,” she said, leaning close to him so he would hear her over the music. “We probably shouldn’t be standing here on the side-lines,” she said pointedly.

Bae smirked at how obvious she was being then shook his head.

“Probably not,” he agreed. “But I’m just wondering which of these beautiful women I want to ask to dance with me,” he teased her terribly.

Emma’s eyes were wide as she looked at him, but she laughed when she realised he was trying not to grin himself. Biting her lip she changed tack then and moved to stand before him, blocking his view of any of the other women in the room.

“Excuse me, kind sir,” she said, in her most over-done upper-class accent. “May I have this dance?” she asked, dropping into a curtsey.

“I would be honoured, m’lady,” said Bae, bowing deeply as he kept up the charade.

They were both laughing as they finally moved into each other’s arms and began to dance. It didn’t matter that he messed up the steps once or twice and trod on her toes, or that she couldn’t seem to help but lead as they moved around the floor. Certainly the young couple took no notice of how much they were being stared at. It just didn’t matter to them, they only had eyes for each other.

“Y’know its still amazing to me that we’re here like this,” said Emma eventually. “Six months ago, I couldn’t imagine meeting a man that I could fall in love with, and now I wouldn’t want to think of my life without you in it.”

“Well, you don’t have to,” Baelfire told her with a smile. “I had no idea this was going to happen either, but as it turns out, I’m pretty sure we were always destined to be meet and to be together.”

“What makes you say that?” she asked, sure he meant more by his words than just a simple sweet sentiment.

Pulling her ever closer, Baelfire spoke directly into Emma’s ear in a whisper nobody else would hear. She shivered in the best way as his breath tickled her ear.

“You called for Pan’s shadow, which brought my father and Belle to Neverland. You had a hand in saving my life, Emma,” he told her softly.

Immediately the words were spoken, she pulled back and stared aghast at what he just told her. Baelfire was amused by her surprise, but beyond the playfulness that sparkled in his eyes, Emma saw the truth. Every word he spoke was genuine, as she had always assumed it was. In fact, she knew now that what he said was very definitely true.

“I remember that,” she said suddenly, glancing across the room to where Rumpel and Belle were dancing still. “I do. I mean, I had no idea what it was all about at the time but... I saved your life,” she said with a rush of odd realisation. “I’m the reason you’re even here.”

“You did and you are,” he nodded, pulling her close again.

“So we really were destined all along,” she smiled, their noses practically touching.

It barely required any movement at all for them to be kissing again, and neither Emma nor Baelfire noticed the audience they had, which was growing all the time. They were about to become the latest couple of interest in the Enchanted Forest, so it was likely a lot of people would be watching them from here on out. None of that could matter to a princess and her suitor, who saw themselves only as a normal couple that had found a true love they were always destined to stumble upon. The future looked bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here endeth Book 2. I have the third part planned out and it will be coming soonish, probably in June! Thanks to all those who left kudos and/or comments :)


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